As Strong as we are United
by wafische
Summary: The Fentons' holiday in London leads them into a new world. Crossover with Harry Potter. New notice up. Please R&R.
1. Dark Welcome

Not related to any of my previous stories. This takes place after SoG, but is in almost no way related to that episode. I just say that because this fic is much longer than my last and I will not get it done before FtF airs, so I'm picking a definate time placement.

* * *

The far corners of the wizarding world can be a dark, desolate place. The foulest beings and magic folk gather there, living in the darkness of their hatred and regret. At the farthest corner, there lay a village known as Grimm. This town had long since been deemed a place to never enter, and usually it was empty. Not even some of the dark creatures dared venture there. It was rumoured among those keen enough to know his true identity that this was the village where Tom Riddle made his final transformation into Lord Voldemort.

Tonight the weather was foul, black clouds unleashing pouring rain and lightning upon the dark little village. The tavern, as it was most nights, was empty; not even the tavern owner was present; except for two robed figures. Underneath one was the Death Eater Lucius Malfoy, on the run from the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic. The other was a ghost, Vlad Plasmius.

Had anyone with knowledge of the Death Eaters' beliefs towards all those who were not pure-blood wizards been present, this sight would have been nearly impossible to behold. But as he had proven in the muggle world only too many times, Vlad was a master of manipulation and furthering his plans.

When he had first begun to train himself in the Ghost-Zone, Vlad was lost, confused, and bitter. He had not asked for these powers; the idiocy of his best friend Jack Fenton had accidentally forced them upon him. In the ghost-zone, the forces of the paranormal changed and corrupted him, driving him further into malevolence. He struggled through, unable to control his powers. He knew he needed guidance. With the Ghost-Zone's many entries into other ghost worlds and spiritual realms, Vlad travelled through these many lands, each time failing to find the right way to gain control of his powers. All seemed to be falling apart for him. There was no one else who was a half-ghost, half-human; who could help him? Then, one day, he found his way into the wizarding world, and happened to come across Lucius Malfoy, at the time one of the most trusted of the Death Eaters.

Having learned of the Death Eaters' feeling towards non-magic folk, Vlad was quick to disguise that part of himself. Passing himself off as a strange ghost, of a different kind than those the wizarding world knew, he sought help through magical means for his powers. He had little to offer then; this was before his wealth and fame, before he had any ghost allies. So he offered himself as a servant and apprentice. He would do menial tasks. He would go out, try and bring others into Voldemort's circle, commit murders, rob, plunder, and other such crimes. Malfoy agreed.

Through magic and the Dark Arts, Vlad was able to gain control of his powers. They were enhanced through the magic, and he himself learned a few curses and spells. He kept his word to Malfoy, carrying out whatever was ordered of him. As he began to build his fortune and alliances at home and in the Ghost-Zone, he proved his worth to Malfoy in other ways. Malfoy never brought Vlad to Voldemort, fearing he would lose a personal aide. And despite his powers, Vlad was the one secret Voldemort did not unearth from his Death Eaters. After Voldemort's fall, Vlad continued to be a reliable connection for Malfoy, helping to cover his activities. Eventually, Vlad learned enough magic to fully transform himself into a ghost without death, still able to disguise himself as a muggle. Now they sat in the tavern, waiting.

They did not have to wait long. From nowhere a wisp of a black cloak appeared in the centre of the tavern, coming out further into a full figure. Tall, thin, the hood of his cloak raised over his snakelike face, Lord Voldemort appeared in the room, quickly turning to face his two fellow occupants, who quickly rose to their feet and bowed.

"Lucius," the high, cold voice said from under the cloak, "I trust I haven't kept you waiting long?"

"Not at all, my Master," Malfoy bowed once more, "Never is waiting for your presence too long..." Voldemort held up a hand to bring silence.

"You have finally brought your friend out of hiding, I see," from behind the cloak, the scarlet eyes darted over in Vlad's direction, "I must admit Lucius, when you first told me about this ghost of yours you're lucky I didn't kill you right then and there. You know full well the use creatures such as ghosts, giants, dementors and the like can be to us."

"My most humble apologies, my Master. I had always intended to..."

"Enough, Lucius," Voldemort silenced him once again, "You have finally brought him out, and it is time for him to prove his worth to Lord Voldemort," he now walked right up to Vlad, "Lower your hood," the ghost did so, revealing his blue-toned skin, deep red eyes, and Wolverine-styled hair. Voldemort looked over him a few times, always pausing to glare into the ghost's eyes.

"Lucius has told me about your wonderful services to him before and since my encounter with Harry Potter," he finally said, "I must admit that I am impressed. You have quite a knowledge of the variety of ghosts and spirits that exist; not even I hold all of that knowledge. And yet I wonder; you have fufilled your debts to my friend Lucius, who never brought you before me, and now control your powers. What now brings you to join me?" Vlad bowed again.

"It is through the powers you master that I was able to become what I am," he said, "and without you, Lucius could not have helped me in the ways he has. I am in your debt. And I have my reasons for loathing muggles," Voldemort did not answer yet. He just kept his cold, dead stare fixed into Vlad's eyes, as if searching his mind. Finally...

"Welcome, Vlad Plasmius, to the service of Lord Voldemort," Vlad once again bowed.

"I thank you, my Master. I shall immediately begin to gather my ghost friends to your side. There is one young ghost much like me..."

"Bring him as well, then."

"There is a problem with that, my Master. He is under the same foolish beliefs held by such wizards as your Dumbledore that there is a good and evil rather than power. However, with his mind as confused as it is, it should not be difficult to bring him over to our side. He is currently..." Voldemort raised his hand to silence him.

"Lucius," he said, "See to it our newest member gets whatever he needs," and with a wisp of his cloak, Lord Voldemort vanished just as he had come.

_**As Strong as we are United**_


	2. The Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley

In was a normal day in London. Light overcast skies covered overhead as people roamed through the streets, going about their everyday business. Visitors from other towns and countries were also out and about, the Fenton family among them. With a few days off of school, Jazz managed to convince her parents to take a trip to the UK instead of to an old mansion only a few miles from Amity Park. Danny had gotten permission to invite Tucker and Sam along, and their parents had approved. However, nothing could stop Jack from bringing his ghost equipment. With such an old city, he figured there would be hundreds of ghosts!

"I can't believe there isn't a single ghost in this city!" Jack complained, shaking the ghost-tracker frantically. They were making their way into a park, the three younger kids ahead. Jazz stood a few feet behind her parents, holding her head in embarrassment.

"I still think you should have left those things at home, Jack," Maddie said calmly, "Isn't it nice to just go on a holiday and not have to worry about ghosts? We're in London!"

"And as such, there should be ghosts here! Why do you think _A Christmas Carol_ is set here!?"

"Maybe because Charles Dickens _lived_ here?" Jazz said from behind in an annoyed voice, "Can't you put that thing away!?"

"Sorry Jasmine," Jack said, turning around, "As a professional ghost-hunter I'm duty-bound to make this a working vacation!"

"Mom's not having a working vacation!"

"Well, she's on vacation from working vacations," Jazz sighed with an air of resignation.

"I'm going to hang out with Danny," her voice sounded monotone from annoyance.

Up ahead, Danny and Sam were watching the streets and buildings from a nice, shady area of the park. Tucker had stopped by a vendor to get food, and anticipating a long confusion over currency and food names, they had left him behind.

"Wow," Sam said, eyeing one tower in particular, "For once, I'm glad your family took your sister's advice."

"Me too," Danny smiled, "This place is great. Almost wish we lived here. No ghosts, cooler, no Valerie..." he heard a snap of a twig, and his smile quickly dropped.

"Tucker," he said without turning around, "the first 54 times back in Amity were somewhat amusing, but now this has to stop."

"What?" Tucker's voice asked from behind them, "You think I've been following around spying on you, hoping for a situation that will call for another fake-out make-out so I can get some pics?" he stood up from behind the bushes; a digital camera was hooked into his PDA.

"We have our suspicions."

"What fake-out make-out?" Jazz walked up, causing a nervous look to cover Danny and Sam's faces. Tucker grinned slyly.

"Well it's funny you should ask that," he said, "You see..."

"Tucker, did you buy that food yet?" Danny interrupted quickly with a hint of threat in his tone.

"Yeah. Now, what happened was..."

"Can we have it?"

"Sure, sure. My girl Valerie was..."

"**_Now?_**"

"Alright, alright. Here you..." Tucker finally bothered to look at the food he was given, "What's up with this? I ask for chips and they give me fries? Well, we'll just see about that!" he marched off, Sam rolling her eyes.

"Don't ask," she and Danny said together, annoyed. Without looking at her, they could tell Jazz had opened her mouth to ask about the fake-out make-out; again without looking at her, they could tell she had shut it.

Of course, having been listening in on ghost-related conversations since she found out about his powers to make sure he was safe, Jazz already knew about the fake-out make-out. She was just playing the part of the not-knowing big sister.

----

"Just one ghost!" Jack was still upset, "Just one! In this entire city you would expect to find just one ghost!"

"Jack, just give it a rest and have fun," Maddie said; he was starting to grow annoying.

"I just don't understand it, Maddie. How, in this whole city, can there not be one single..."

"Looking for ghosts?" a voice asked. A man in a black cloak pulled low over his face stood behind them. He had another part of his cloak pulled across his body like a cape, making his face even more impossible to see. His voice almost sounded like that of a man trying to hide his true voice.

"Yes..." Jack answered, eyeing the cloaked figure suspiciously, who began to chuckle to himself.

"Well then, I think I can help you."

"How?"

"Try and keep up," with that, the cloaked figure dashed off, leaping over the fence of the park and down the streets.

"Hey!" Jack shouted, "Wait! Get back here!" Jack also jumped the fence, charging after the man, who stood out even with the streets as crowded as they were. Maddie followed behind, yelling at Jack to come back to the park. The man turned down an alley and out into another street, lined with bookshops, cinemas, hamburger restaurants and music stores. He stopped in between one big book shop and a record shop and ran into a small building, with a frail, almost unnoticeable sign. Shaped like a witch stirring her cauldron, the sign read "The Leaky Cauldron." Jack stopped just short of entering, looking up at the sign. How anyone could single out this one little pub was beyond him. It appeared to be a gritty, run-down old tavern. Yet something about it seemed to draw him in.

"Jack?" he was just barely aware of his wife's voice behind him.

"Maddie, go back and get the kids," he said without turning around, "I found us a new place to stay for the night."

----

"Why??" Jazz moaned, "Why, why, why, why, why-y-y!?" the inside of The Leaky Cauldron wasn't any more impressive than the outside. It was a dark, shabby looking place. The few people inside were dressed in either Victorian or outlandish clothes that seemed to come right from _Grimm's Fairy Tales_. Two old women sat together at a table, one of them smoking a long pipe. A hunchbacked man who resembled Count Orlock in _Nosferatu_ was chatting with a proper-looking man with a slick haircut. The old bartender was cleaning the counter with a rag. The Fentons and friends stood there, the only people dressed somewhat normally and holding all of their luggage, the rented car right outside. It was a full two minutes before the bartender finally noticed them.

"Anything I could help you with, sir?" he asked with a slight smile.

"Have any rooms here?" Jack said seriously.

"Yes..." he replied, still smiling, though now it seemed more nervous than warm, "Are you in need of one?"

"Yep. How much?" there was a pause. The bartender seemed unusually upset over a request for rooms.

"Excuse me a moment. I must double-check something," he hurried out from behind a bar and headed down a dark hallway.

"Well, I guess we wait," Jack dropped his bag and sat down on the floor, "Feel free to look around, kids," Danny, Sam and Tucker immediately dropped their bags and began to do so; Jazz just stood, still moping.

"Guy seemed kind of upset over a lousy room, didn't he?" Tucker said.

"Maybe it's 'cause we're from out of town," Danny said, eyeing what looked like a stuffed deer's head except more extraordinary antlers. He was close to the hunchbacked man and the proper one; a bit too close. When the hunchback turned, he swung his arm, knocking Danny back down the hallway the bartender had gone down. He ended up falling over some short steps and into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a trashcan and a few weeds. As he got up, he noticed that some of the bricks in one side of the wall seemed to be closing back up.

"What the...?" he felt the place where the bricks had been open. He tapped them a few times; nothing happened. He continued to stare at the wall, trying to figure this out. Had he just imagined that? Was it the fall down the stairs? Guess he had to do this the hard way. Taking a deep breath, he went intangible and phased through the wall, coming out to a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight. A street sign at the end of one turn read "Diagon Alley."

"...Wow," that was all Danny could manage to say. This was the most amazing, fantastic place Danny had ever been before in his life. "Cauldrons – All Sizes – Copper, Bras, Pewter, Silver – Self-Stirring – Collapsible," read the sign on the nearest shop. The strangest and most interesting people were rushing around this setting, dressed in fantastic clothes. Some with younger children carried cauldrons filled with supplies; older children carried their own. These cauldrons held what looked like ordinary books, but also wands, robes, unusual gloves, and all sorts of other things. One shop had two redheaded boys standing outside, talking to a group of small children and showing off outrageous devices; it was a joke-shop.

Something in the back of his head told him it might be a good idea to go back into the tavern, or at least get Tucker and Sam. But he wanted to look around on his own first. He started down one turn, moving his head in every direction trying to take in everything around him. He was so preoccupied with this that he did not even notice the one man that should have stood out among the rest, an eight-foot man covered in shaggy black hair, and ran right into him.

"Sorry," the man said as he noticed Danny.

"It's alright," Danny replied, now realising how large this man was, "My fault."

"Not from aroun' here, are yeh?" he asked, noting Danny's lack of accent, "On holiday?" Danny nodded, "Well, enjoy yerself, then," he patted Danny on the shoulder and headed down another turn of the street.

Neither one of them, or anyone on the street, noticed that the cloaked figure who had led Jack to The Leaky Cauldron was watching Danny, having lowered his cloak enough so that, if one were looking, they would have barely seen his blue-tone skin, red eyes, and nasty grin. He turned around and phased through the brick passage back to the tavern exactly the way Danny had.


	3. The Dementors' Attack

Hey! Sorry this took so long, but I was on vacation. A quick heads up; the magical world really starts to come into play here. For certain aspects, I decided to base the magic elements more on Alfonso Cuaron's additions and modifications in the third movie rather than the books, as that is the best fantasy film ever made IMO. If anyone did not like the changes to that movie, then I apologise. The rest is based on DP and the books.

* * *

Figuring out that this was a magical world inhabited by witches and wizards was hardly difficult; the street signs, shop names, goods, and clothes were a dead give-away. What was more amazing to Danny is how little this surprised him. Despite all his encounters with ghosts, his parents had changed that from supernatural to science. This place should have appeared unreal, strange, or even frightening; yet Danny felt right at home here. He would have continued his search had he not seen the bartender coming out of an office, looking far more relaxed than he had earlier. Not wanting to lose the chance to come back with Tucker and Sam, Danny ran back towards the exit, phased through the wall, and just managed to get back out to his friends without being noticed.

"Where'd you go?" Sam asked.

"I'll show you later," he whispered as the bartender walked out smiling slightly.

"Sorry about all that," he walked right up to Jack, who had begun pacing, "We have a few rooms available, and you are welcome to stay."

"Excellent!" Jack snapped back into reality, "Book three rooms for four days!"

"Huh?" Jazz looked even more miserable, "I thought we were only staying here for one night!"

"Change of plans, Jasmine."

"Excellent," the bartender clapped his hands together, "Now, follow me, and we'll get your keys..." he led Jack behind the bar. Danny now had his chance.

"Come on," he whispered to Sam and Tucker, "You guys gotta see this."

"See what?" Sam asked, but Danny just grabbed her arm and pushed Tucker down the hallway.

"Dan-ny," Sam tried to get her arm loose; this was a little strange for him, "Where the heck are we..." as she saw the sight before her as they phased through the wall, words began to fail her. Once Danny let go of her arm, she clasped both her hands over her mouth, staring wide-eyed at the twisting, turning street. Tucker had a similar shocked expression, his mouth wide-open in shock.

"Where the heck are we?" he finally managed to say.

"It's some magic wizard world," Danny grinned, "The bartender came in here, so I'm guessing that's the real reason why he didn't want to give us any rooms," they both turned to Sam, who had slowly begun to lower her hands from her mouth.

"If your dad moves in here permanently, I'm staying with you," she finally said, beginning to smile uncontrollably. The three began to head down the street together, passing by the joke shop Danny had seen earlier.

"Hello there!" one of the redheaded boys outside called to them. Up close, Danny could see that they were identical twins, right down to the freckles on their faces. They were not that young either; they had to be at least 18.

"I'm Fred," the boy said.

"And I'm George," his twin added.

"And welcome to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes," they said together.

"Finest shop of mischief aides in all of England," Fred said.

"Tested by our good friends at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," George said.

"Backed financially by a legitimate source..."

"...And guaranteed to give your mates a laugh and gits a right good helping of what they deserve."

"So, can we interest you in anything today?" they asked in unison.

"Best in the country, eh?" Tucker asked, grinning mischievously.

"On holiday from America, are you?" Fred asked. Danny nodded nervously; he'd been in here less than a minute and already Tucker was beginning to get them in trouble.

"America," George sighed, "Alright place, from what I hear."

"Not much for wizards, though," Fred shook his head, "And those egos! No offence to any of you three, of course."

"No prob," Tucker said, eyeing the items in the window of the shop, "So, show me what ya' got."

"Very well then," the twins said together.

"Best if we start out with our simpler products, George."

"Right you are, Fred. If you will observe," George took a pointed hat decorated with a fluffy pink feather from behind him, "An ordinary hat. Place upon your head," he did so. For a second he merely looked stupid, then both hat and head vanished. All three of the younger kids jumped back a bit.

"And off again!" shouted Fred, and George's hand groped for a moment in what seemed to be thin air over his shoulder; then his hat reappeared as he swept the hat from it.

"Awesome!" Tucker's grin was so large it seemed like his face might burst if it got any larger.

"Care to see anything else?"

"Uh, Tuck?" Danny managed to say before Tucker could open his mouth, "We are kind of in a hurry..."

"Yeah. I'll just take a hat."

"That'll be two Galleons," Fred said.

"Uh..." Danny and Sam winced behind Tucker; to their surprise, however, Fred merely shook his head.

"Yanks," he said, "Always inventing their own currency and way of the English language and assuming we use Muggle coin."

"You can have it free this time," George handed Tucker the hat, "but if you plan on coming by later bring some real money with you."

"Thanks," Tucker immediately pulled off his cap and put on the feathered hat, causing his head to vanish.

"Good day," the twins said together, and with that, headed back inside their shop. Danny and Sam breathed a sigh of relief.

"Don't do that again," Danny said exasperatingly to Tucker, "We don't have wizard money and I don't even think non-magic people are supposed to be here or know about this place. We're just looking around, OK?"

"Relax," the headless body said, "I'll keep away from the products."

But Danny and Sam ended up having to keep Tucker from buying 14 more things as they continued on through Diagon Alley. Beyond that, however, it was one of the best times of their lives. A few wizards performed on the street, doing what apparently were favourite magic acts for children; Danny, Sam and Tucker had never seen anything like it before. There was a mock "wizard's duel" on the street as well. As it turned out, even wizards had to go to school; children of various ages were going through shops such as Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions and Flourish and Blotts, a bookshop. It was here they made their first acquaintances after Fred and George; two boys named Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas, who were going into "sixth year at Hogwarts." With Fred and George's past words, they knew Hogwarts was a wizard school in England, but they had no idea which magic schools existed back home. Fortunately, they never came up. Seamus and Dean provided some good advice; while saying goodbye, Tucker had almost led them down a shifty-looking street to "Knockturn Alley."

A few people gave them a "good day" or "hello" as they walked passed, but generally they had no verbal communication with anyone besides themselves; that was a good thing. They continued to explore the street for what seemed like hours before finally deciding to head back. Despite the many turns of the street, Sam had kept track of names of large shops and signs as guides to the brick wall back to The Leaky Cauldron. They phased through and, being sure to avoid being noticed and Tucker switching back his hats, made their way towards the table where the Fentons (minus Jazz) were sitting.

"There you are!" Maddie said angrily as she saw them, "Where have you been?"

"Oh, uh...just looking around the place," Danny said; it was half-true.

"Well, next time say something before you disappear for three hours!"

"Your mother's right, Danny," Jack said, "We need to where you are in this town. We're responsible for your friends as well as you."

"Sorry."

"Well, no harm done. Come on up, I'll show you the rooms.

----

The three rooms were comfortable, each holding a large bed, highly polished oak furniture, and a fireplace. Danny and Tucker took one room, Jazz and Sam another, and Jack and Maddie the last one. Upon Tucker's insistence, he and Danny had drawn straws to decide who would sleep on the floor; Danny got to keep the bed. The bartender, whose name was Tom, had come up to ask them to stay in their rooms or at least upstairs, claiming that there was a meeting going on downstairs. Phasing down, Danny saw that he had in fact called all the wizard inmates, telling them to perform no magic and keep quiet about anything relating to their world when the Fentons, Tucker, or Sam were around. This was definitely not a happy order for most.

"How could you even think of letting in a whole family of Muggles in!?" a tall, old wizard was shouting, "How'd they get in anyway?"

"Some cloaked wizard came through here and they were right behind him," Tom was staying calm, "If they follow close enough, they'll see the place. There's no rule against it anyway, so long as we keep quiet."

"There's five of them!" an old witch with a crooked nose screeched, "They're staying for..."

"Four days. You can go without magic for that long. Besides, I don't think the father's all right in the head. Ghost hunter..." he chuckled, "When will Muggles ever learn? Only we come back as ghosts!" after hearing this, Danny phased back up.

Sam spent most of her time in their room, discussing what Danny had heard. They now were sure that Muggle meant non-magic people and were not supposed to know about the magic world. Every caution was likely going to be taken to keep them from finding out about it; possibly including blocking off the hallway to the barrier to Diagon Alley. (Jazz, passing by after going to the bathroom, caught part of the conversation. Despite knowing Danny's secret, she was not entirely convinced; a bit of ease-dropping on the meeting downstairs convinced her.)

Personally, Danny was not worried about not being able to see the magic world; now that they were sure they shouldn't have found it the first place, he felt they should stay out of it. He was more confused about Tom's words; "Only we come back as ghosts..."

His parents had been able to trace the exit of a spirit from the body, determine what would happen if it was not put to rest, the effects of The Ghost-Zone and different kinds of ectoplasm on a ghost...for his family and friends, ghosts were just like any school science unit. Now he had this placed before him. If there was magic in the ectoplasm his parents used to power their machines, it hadn't been apparent. Neither had any when Danny had been exposed to the ectoplasmic blast inside the Ghost Portal. And he was sure none of the ghosts he'd encountered, save Desiree, could perform magic; Skulker and Technus's use of non-magic technology proved it. Even Vlad, as powerful as he had been, hadn't seemed to use anything other than the powers Danny had. Was the wizarding world wrong in this case? Were there different types of ghosts? Sam and Tucker could provide no answers, and Danny couldn't ask his parents without telling them about Diagon Alley, which was definitely not a wise idea.

He lay on the bed going over this puzzle until it was almost dark out and a knock came at the door.

"It's open," he said; his mother walked in.

"Tom says the meeting's done, and we've got about half and hour until your curfew, so if you and your friends would like to go out on the streets, as long as you stay near here, you're allowed to," she left, closing the door behind her.

"Now's our chance to sneak back that Diagonal-whatsits place," Tucker said at once, grinning.

"Nah, we shouldn't go if we're not supposed to know about it," Sam said, "There's some cool stores around here we could look at," Danny didn't say anything; he was still thinking. _How_ could there be different kinds of ghosts?

"Come on, Danny," Sam messed up his hair a bit to get his attention, "We've got four days and all your dad's files at home to figure it out. Let's go out while we can."

"Yeah...we probably should," he slid off the bed and the three headed downstairs and out into London. It was a bit chilly out, but as they'd only be out for less than a half-hour, they didn't go back in for their jackets. It was nearly dark, the sky a deep midnight-blue and a half-moon beginning to show. The bookshop and record shop on either side of The Leaky Cauldron were still open.

"Let's see what music they've got here," Tucker said, "My dad's got an old record player I can use to play this stuff," they started to go in, but Danny noticed a change in the air. It had suddenly become icy cold, both outside and inside; deeper than their skin, it went right into their hearts, their blood. Ice actually began to form on the handle of the door, the street, and all-around. All the streetlights and lights in any nearby buildings went out. He began shivering, his breath growing more nervous. It seemed impossible to think anything happy, to feel cheerful ever again...

"What's happening?" Sam asked; she too sounded cold and terrified. Neither Tucker nor Danny answered. There seemed to be a rattling sound coming from up above, but Danny couldn't see anything; even without lights, he could tell there was nothing above them...unless...

"I'm goin' ghost," he murmured, more to himself than anyone else. Two blue rings shot across his body, and he was now Danny Phantom. The shock of what was above them almost knocked him back. Floating above them was a tall figure, draped in a moth-eaten black robe. Two rotting, skeletal hands came out from the sleeves, grabbing at the air as if reaching for something. The rattling was the thing taking in breath. It began to come down towards them, picking up speed. Finally it went into a dive, swooping in right up to Danny's face before he could move away.

All at once, it was if every happy memory he'd ever had was sucked right out of his face and under the creature's hood. The cold grew worse, turning his body rigid. As the thing finally pulled away Danny collapsed backwards, barely catching himself.

"Danny?" he heard Sam say; his vision was now blurry. They couldn't see the thing. As his vision came back, Danny saw it return to its place in the sky...and a second one fly down towards Sam.

"GET DOWN!" he shouted, knocking her over; the thing just barely missed her. Now a third creature was flying in towards Tucker, whom Danny pulled to the ground.

"What are you..." Sam began.

"There's these three things that look like the Ghost of Christmas Future. I couldn't see them as a kid either, but..." the first creature was coming back. Danny fired a blast at it, but it was unfazed.

"Run," he told his friends before taking off, the thing following. The other two, observing Sam and Tucker, followed them.

----

"Bit slow t'night, eh Ern?" the pimple-faced conductor of the Knight Bus said. Stan Shunpike leaned against one of the beds, looking bored.

"Yah' man," Ernie Prang's shrunken head said, "Not a soul on the streets with a bit o' magic in 'em. Best slow us down a bit then, Ernie," pulling a lever, the giant purple bus went by on a normal speed. All of a sudden everything went cold, cold fog forming on the window. All warmth in the mind, heart, and air went out, even from the shrunken head. A flash of colour on the window caught Stan's eye.

"Hold 'er up there, Ern," he said, and the Knight Bus came to a stop, the doors opening. Stan jumped back in so fast he looked like a blur of purple when he saw what was going on. A white-haired boy in black with green eyes was being chased down by a dementor, the former guards of the wizard prison Azkaban who now worked for Lord Voldemort.

"_BLIMEY!_" he gasped, "Ern, get us t' Diagon Alley!"

----

Danny tried every ghost attack he knew, but nothing seemed to affect the creature. Even from this distance it seemed to be sucking all but the worst memories from him. They had gone in a complete circle twice now, and the thing was catching up. It flew right up to Danny's face, and seemed to almost suck his face right into the hole in its cloak. It felt like being sucked through the most bitter, cold water one could imagine, all of the worst experiences of his life flashing before him. This took almost all of Danny's strength. He felt everything drain away from his body as he fell to the ground near Sam and Tucker; they had been chased back and had fallen, unconscious. Barely able to see or hold ghost form, Danny could barely make out all three of the things floating in towards them, their slimely hands outstretched. But he could also make out The Leaky Cauldron, where a crowd of people had rushed out of. A tall boy, older than Danny, with messy black hair and glasses, had a wand outstretched.

"_EXPECTO PATRONUM!_"

Out from his wand, a huge, dazzling silver animal seemed to spring out; it looked like a large deer. It took a few steps forward. Then it stopped, breathing out a huge wave of silver towards them. It swept over them, causing the creatures to quickly retreat, seemingly in terror of the brilliant creature before them. Then, as they disappeared and the air began to return to normal in the street, the light and animal vanished, and the giant shaggy man Danny had run into earlier ran over with the boy towards them.

* * *

**Cybertoy00**: Thank you for the list. I can never remember them all.

**Gijinka Renamon**: Very true. Though it is never stated they _can't_ see The Leaky Cauldron, that is a fair point. I hope you liked Tom's explanaition; the real reason may be different.


	4. What to do?

One more thing I should say about where this is placed in the timelines of both DP and HP; since I don't know any more about "Half-Blood Prince" than anyone else, I'm just making this my version of Harry's sixth year, like there has been no announcement on the last two books.

* * *

His vision clearing, Danny could make out the people near The Leaky Cauldron more clearly. The boy was tall and scrawny. His hair wasn't just messy; it went all over the place. He was wearing casual clothes too large for him and had a scar to the side of his forehead shaped like a lightning bolt. Along with the giant, another man was coming with him towards them. Though young, his face was tired, with several scars across his cheeks and old, tattered robes. He had dark hair and a thin moustache and was breaking up a large slab of chocolate.

"That sure was close," the giant man said in a gasp, helping Danny to his feet, "Are yeh all righ'?"

"Kinda," Danny said, stumbling a bit; his knees were shaking and he still felt frozen.

"Here," the moustached man handed him a piece of the chocolate, "Eat it. It'll help," Danny took it, looking at the man questioningly. He took a bite, and was quite surprised to find that it did indeed help, warmth filling his stomach and flowing to the tips of his fingers and toes.

"What was that thing?" he asked, finishing off the chocolate.

"Wait until we get inside," the man said quickly. Danny heard a groan behind him; Sam had begun to wake up. He helped her to her feet and the man gave her some chocolate. All this time the shaggy man had been eyeing Danny suspiciously.

"Have I seen yeh before?" he asked Danny.

"Uh..." this wasn't going too well, "yeah. I ran into you earlier today in...

"Ah, yeah. But yer hair was black then, wannit?" Danny and Sam shared nervous glances. Before they could answer, they heard Tucker's moaning as he got up, almost falling over before the boy with glasses caught him. The moustached man gave him some chocolate.

"Let's go inside," the man led them all back inside The Leaky Cauldron through the crowd. They were joined by a tall boy with messy red hair and a terrified look on his face and a girl with bushy, straggly dirty blonde hair. The man led them through the main room and down the hallway to Diagon Alley. He took out his wand and tapped the third brick from the left above the trash bin. All of a sudden, the bricks began to pull back, folding in on one another and vanishing when they went into the wall. The now dark cobbled street lit by candlelight appeared before them, and was frighteningly empty. They immediately went to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, where Fred and George waited outside, looking anxious.

"Upstairs," they said in unison, though not in the joking, carefree manner of earlier; their tone was dead serious. They headed inside. The downstairs was full of shelves, tables, and bookcases, all with unusual products. A large stack of what looked like lunchboxes were on one table. The invisible hats rested on a rack. The books were all joke books. They didn't stop to examine anything, though; the shaggy man quickly led them up the stairs. This room was large, with two beds off in the corner and many sleeping bags on the floor. The shelves here were filled with spell books, parchment, and unusual instruments. A handsome desk was at the other corner, what looked like an eagle's perch on it. A freckled red-haired girl, only a year or two ahead of Danny and his friends, was standing by two red-haired adults who must have been the parents of this girl, Fred and George, and the red-haired boy who had met them in The Leaky Cauldron. Besides Fred and George, all of their clothes looked hand-made and a bit old. The moustached man gave a flick of his wand, and three ordinary chairs appeared in the centre of the room.

"Sit down," he said to Danny and his friends, smiling slightly, "Bill and Charlie off on duty?" the red-haired man nodded.

"All righ' then," the shaggy man nodded, "Now that we're settled, I think we should introduce ourselves. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Care of Magical Creatures teacher at Hogwarts."

"Remus Lupin," the moustached man said lightly.

"Arthur Weasley," the red-haired man stepped up, "My wife, Molly," he nodded to the red-haired woman, "Our sons Fred, George, and Ron, and our daughter Ginny. This is Hermione Granger," he pointed to the bushy-haired girl, "And this is Harry Potter," the boy with the glasses had retreated over to the sleeping bags, and did not look at them.

"Hi," Danny said, "I'm Danny Fenton, and these are my friends Sam Manson and Tucker Foley," Sam and Tucker smiled and nodded as their names were said.

"Well, now that's outta the way," Hagrid said, "Suppose we should let yeh in on some things. Yeh've just been attacked by a couple o' dementors."

"Huh?" Tucker immediately expressed his confusion.

"Dementors," Lupin said grimly, "Formerly the guards of Azkaban. They're among the foulest creatures to walk the Earth. They live in the darkness, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they feed on every happy memory, every happy feeling, all of the peace, love, and hope in the mind, heart, and the air around them. Even Muggles can feel their presence, though they can't see them," Sam and Tucker looked up to the ceiling, trying to avoid Lupin's eyes. Danny was even more confused than ever.

"How old are you three?" Lupin asked.

"14," they all said together.

"I'm guessing you live in the United States?" they nodded, "Which school do you go to there?"

"Oh," Tucker said nervously, "We...uh...we go to..."

"Tucker," Danny interrupted, "They're gonna find out anyway, so we'd better tell them," he noticed the confusion that had now appeared on everyone's face. Danny took a deep breath.

"We're...we're not magic," he had to force those last two words out. Now all of them looked even more confused, if that was possible.

"Not magic?" Ron said, his face the most confused of all.

"Yeah. My parents hunt ghosts. We were..."

"Hunt ghosts?" Hagrid said, laughing a little, "I'd advise yer folks ter look fer ano'er job. On'y back as ghosts," Danny finished, "I'll tell you where I heard that later," he added as Hagrid opened his mouth, "So, they hunt ghosts. Our school had a few days off and my sister made my parents come here instead of an old mansion my dad thought was haunted. We were in the park today and some guy told my dad he knew where to catch ghosts and led him to The Leaky Cauldron, and my dad had use get our stuff and go there. I accidentally got knocked down the hallway which shows the passage to Diagon Alley," he stopped for a minute. Ron still looked bewildered and rest of the Weasleys and Hagrid seemed in shock. Lupin, however, looked thoughtful.

"You say your father followed someone to The Leaky Cauldron?" Danny nodded, "Closely?"

"I guess," Danny shrugged.

"Well, that explains how he could see it. Continue," Danny took in another large breath. Now it was _really_ going to be hard explaining everything.

"OK, first I'd better tell you why...I can do this," he changed back to his human form, causing Ron to jump back and Fred and George's jaws to drop.

"_That's_ what yeh looked liked before," Hagrid said.

"Yeah. This is where I start getting confused as to who and what become ghosts. My parents changed ghosts from superstition to science and built a bunch of ghost weapons..."

"Your parents are able to build devices that detect spirits?" Mr. Weasley said, looking suddenly excited. Danny nodded, "Do they work?" he nodded again; Mr. Weasley now wore a wide grin, "Amazing. Tell me, how do they..."

"Arthur," Mrs. Weasley interrupted, "that can wait. Please go on, dear," she smiled at Danny.

"Right. Well, one day they tried building a portal to break into The Ghost-Zone..."

"There's no ghost-zone!" Ron cut in, "Harry told us last year when he asked Nick about..." he looked over at Harry. He hadn't moved or turned to look at them, but the expression on his face had gone grim.

"...Point is," Ron said, not saying what Harry had asked this Nick about, "When a wizard dies, they either move on or stay as a ghost! There's nowhere between!"

"Well, I've fought a ton of ghosts, and only one was magic. I dunno who's right now. Anyway, they built the portal and it didn't work. I took a look inside. Turns out they forgot to hit the 'on' button. I accidentally hit it, and got caught in the blast of ectoplasm to open the portal. I woke up half-ghost. Since then, I've had ghost powers.

"So when you found the barrier to Diagon Alley..." Lupin brought them back to the original question.

"The bricks were closing back up, so I phased through the wall. I didn't know that non-magic people weren't allowed in. I looked around a bit, saw that Tom guy making sure it was all right for my dad to get rooms, and went back. I brought in Tucker and Sam later and we came back after a few hours. When Tom had a meeting in The Leaky Cauldron I heard them saying how we weren't supposed to know about magic and that only wizards can become ghosts. We weren't planning on going back inside after that. We went for a walk outside, and those dementor things showed up," Danny took another breath, finished. The confusion on everyone's face seemed to have faded a bit. Lupin still looked deep in thought.

"Could you see the dementors, Danny?"

"When I went ghost."

"Not as your normal self?" Danny shook his head, "And what about you two?" he turned to Sam and Tucker.

"I couldn't see them," Sam admitted, "But it felt horrible. Like..."

"...Like you'd never be cheerful again," Lupin finished for her, "And you?"

"Same," Tucker said. Lupin nodded.

"Do you have any idea why those dementors were after you?"

"I didn't even know they existed," Danny said.

"That magic ghost you fought, did it seem to be taking orders? Did it seem well connected, like it had alliances and favours owed to it?"

"Nope. She was more like a genie than a wizard," Lupin looked a bit defeated.

"I see. Are there any ghosts you've fought who seem like they would be in such a position, magic or not?"

"Well...there is one. He's half-ghost like me, with twenty years' more experience."

"Who is he?"

"Vlad Masters, a.k.a. Vlad Plasmius."

"Clever," George commented slyly, "Have you crafted your own alternate identity?" Fred elbowed him, but they were both snickering.

"That's enough out of the pair of you," Mrs. Weasley said sternly.

"So...what happens to us?" Tucker asked nervously. Lupin sighed.

"Dumbledore will be here tomorrow for a while," he said, more to the Weasleys and Hagrid than to Tucker, "We'll have him decide."

"Who's Dumbledore?" Sam asked. Hagrid smiled.

"You'll meet him tomorrow. Righ' now, I'd suggest the three of yeh go back ter yer folks an' wait there 'til tomorrow. Harry'll get yeh," Danny looked over at Harry; he still had not moved.

"This will be difficult to explain to your family..." Lupin sighed.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Danny said quickly, "My dad...he doesn't always think before he acts and my sister would laugh you out of the room. Couldn't we wait until you decide what to do?" Lupin thought for a moment.

"Very well. Arthur, would you mind taking them back to their rooms?" he asked.

"Not at all," Mr. Weasley said. The three friends slowly got up from their chairs and headed downstairs with him.

"Good night," Lupin called after them.

"So, Danny," Mr. Weasley said, "I work in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office at the Ministry of Magic. Tell me, how do your parents manage to power their devices? I'd imagine it'd be near impossible to do it without magic.

"Well they've researched different kinds of ectoplasm and use them as fuel for the machines. They normally use the green kind because they say that's the most basic kind."

"They've found different varieties of ghost? My word! I'm beginning to wonder if it's maybe us wizards who are wrong about ghosts! Now, that portal you mentioned..." it was easy to tell that Mr. Weasley loved anything having to do with non-magic people. The questions continued right up until they reached the door of Sam's room at The Leaky Cauldron.

"...So you say they're Ghost Catcher can force a ghost out of a human if they're inside them?" he asked as Danny finished telling him about his parents' most dangerous invention to him, "I wasn't even aware they could do that! I know it's uncomfortable for a ghost to walk right through you, but..."

"There you are!" a stern voice shouted from behind them, "Do you have any idea what time it is!?"

"Hi, Mom," Danny squeaked, smiling nervously.

"It is 10:47!" Jack walked out, "Where were you and who is this man!?"

"Arthur Weasley," Mr. Weasley shook Jack's hand, "Your kids got a bit lost, and as I happen to know my way around, I offered to lead them back here. Your son's been telling me all about your profession. Absolutely fascinating, I would love to know more!"

Oh," Jack looked suddenly flattered, "Well, thank you! You know anywhere in this city where there may be a ghost?"

"No, but I will immediately tell you if I hear of one. Nice to meet you as well," he nodded to Maddie, "Well, I must be off. Don't be too hard on the kids," he headed downstairs, and Jack and Maddie turned their attention back to the kids.

"Well...good night!" Danny and Tucker quickly ran into their room and Sam into Jazz's.

----

Harry sat on the roof of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, his eyes up at the stars. Everyone else was inside, preparing to go to sleep, but there was too much on his mind for him to feel tired. This evening had given him more to think about.

This was the second summer in a row where he had had to fight off dementors. This time, it was not a Ministry official trying to discredit him who had sent them, and he had not gotten a letter informing him that he needed to attend a hearing. They weren't even after him. But knowing who had sent them did not make him feel any better.

This past summer should have been his best. With the thread of someone from the Order of the Phoenix breaking down their doors if they mistreated him, the Dursleys had no choice but to treat him decently over the summer. He was allowed to come along with them when they went out to eat, when they went to a movie, or when they went up to London. He was finally allowed to have a go on Dudley's computer, to watch what he wanted on television. He had kept in contact with Ron, Hermione, and everyone else over the summer. He'd been kept up to date on everything that the Order decided he should know (Fred and George's finally being admitted, for instance). His school things were allowed in his room still, though as he had never told them about Sirius's death, he doubted they had planned on taking them back under the cupboard.

Sirius; it was this that kept him from enjoying his summer, no matter how wonderful it seemed. The loss of his godfather still seemed so recent. Try as he might, nothing, not even his talks with Ron and Hermione, could relieve him of all the pain he still felt. Even after his talk with Nearly Headless Nick, he still thought there was a slim possibility that Sirius might have come back, but he had not. This was not the only thing eating away at him; there was still the knowledge that he had to become murderer or victim against Voldemort. He still could not bring himself to tell Ron, Hermione, or anyone else.

He had managed to let go and live a little, despite all this. He was no longer snapping furiously at anyone to release all his frustration. Dumbledore had allowed the Weasleys to get him away from Number 4, Pivet Drive two weeks before term started. The Order was still using Grimmauld Place as headquarters, but Harry could barely stand to be there. They had needed to keep Kreacher, and every time Harry saw him it took a great deal of restraint to keep himself from strangling the house-elf to death right on the spot. Thankfully, Dumbledore decided to let the Weasleys go back to The Burrow with Harry and Hermione, Lupin and Hagrid going as a guard, should anything turn up. Here in Diagon Alley they had stayed with Fred and George instead of The Leaky Cauldron. They had run into Seamus, Dean, Neville, and several other friends from Hogwarts. One surprise turned up that not even Voldemort or the death of Sirius could prevent him from enjoying; Dumbledore had managed to convince the Ministry to have Lupin come back as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.

Now they had three young Americans, one of whom was half-ghost. That made absolutely no sense to Harry, knowing what Nick had said last year. Danny didn't seem to be able to make reason out of it either. For some reason, Voldemort or one of his Death Eaters had sent dementors after them. Danny's idea about the other half-ghost being well connected enough to know wizards made no sense to him, knowing the Death Eaters' feelings towards Muggles. Harry could not explain many parts of this puzzle. He could not explain why this was so important to him now. With everything that had happened this summer, it seemed bizarre that an event involving Muggles whom he'd never met would have such an effect on him. Yet for the first time since the end of fifth term, he was thinking about something else more than Sirius or Voldemort.

"Harry?" he heard Hermione's voice behind him, "You'd better come back inside before Mrs. Weasley comes up and drags you into bed," Harry laughed lightly at that. With another sigh and look at the stars, he turned around and headed back inside with Hermione.


	5. Dumbledore's Decision

Tucker lay asleep on the floor, snoring. Danny, on the other hand, was wide awake. Like Harry, his mind was too filled for him to feel tired. Now there were even more complications to his questions over ghosts. Whoever this Nick was, he had to know about what the wizarding world considered ghosts if Harry went to ask him about whatever he needed to know. Was The Ghost-Zone the place where wizards moved on to? He couldn't imagine that being right, as again he reminded himself that Desiree was the only magic ghost he'd ever met. Besides, he doubted that anyone would voluntarily choose to _live_ there. They probably moved on to Heaven. But then where was The Ghost-Zone? If Ron and Tom were right, and all those ghosts were once wizards, why had they changed? Why had they gained their paranormal malevolence? Where did their magic go? What was really eating away on his insides now was; who the heck was he!?

"Ah..." he heard Tucker say in his sleep, "No, no ladies...there's enough of me to go around..." Danny rolled his eyes. Tucker always had dreams of being flocked by beautiful women, and normally made him sit through his re-tellings first thing in the morning. Knowing he'd have to deal with that, he decided to at least try and get some rest. Staying in his clothes, he crawled under the covers and closed his eyes.

----

The Fentons had finished off breakfast and Jack had run out searching for ghosts by the time Harry arrived. He was dressed in the same casual clothes as yesterday, and they definitely looked like they had been slept in.

"Rough night?" Danny asked with a small smile when he answered the door.

"Not as bad as yours, apparently," Harry smirked back. He did have a point; Danny's clothes were messier than his and his hair almost as untidy, "Ready?"

"As we'll ever be," Sam shrugged, standing right behind Danny.

"Uh...this Dumbledore guy," Tucker said, smiling nervously, "He's not...a strict disciplinarian whose going to punish us with some curse, is he?" Harry said nothing; his grin grew even wider. Making sure Tucker couldn't see, he gave Danny and Sam the tiniest shadow of a wink.

"Is he?" Tucker repeated, more anxiously than before. Still grinning, Harry turned and headed towards the stairs, Danny and Sam behind him.

"Guys?" Tucker called from behind them, "Please tell me his grin bothers you too. Guys..._guys_!?"

----

Lupin again conjured up the chairs, now facing the desk. Tucker was almost in a state of shock now, sweating and shaking violently as they awaited Dumbledore's arrival. Everyone else in the room was throwing around michevious smiles. Danny and Sam had been feeling a bit anxious about this earlier, but this made it almost impossible to worry.

"Best check to see if we have any Sneaking Sedatives left," Danny heard Fred mutter to George, "He could use one right about now."

At last Dumbledore appeared in the room. One look at him, and Tucker immediately found himself relaxed, almost laughing at his panic. He was a tall, thin, and extremely old man. His hair and beard were a grizzled silver, long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing silver robes with a satiny shine and fur lining, which was specked with sparkling bits of silver. He wore a dark silver hat, which, if propped up, would have been pointed. His light blue eyes were sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked.

"Hello, Remus," he said with a warm smile, "I trust these three are the Muggle children?"

"Yes, headmaster," nodding, Dumbledore made his way over to the desk and sat down across from them, still smiling.

"Hello there," he greeted them, "my name is Albus Dumbledore."

"Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft an' Wizardry," Hagrid added, beaming.

"Hi," Danny said, "I'm Danny Fenton, this is Sam Manson," he motioned to Sam, who smiled and nodded, "and Tucker Foley," Tucker still had the same relaxed, relieved grin as before and did nothing. Dumbledore nodded.

"Remus has told me everything about last night, including your story, Danny," he said, "I suppose you're wondering what is the cause of all this...and I suspect that all of us have a few questions on ghosts now they'd like to ask," he looked around the room, everyone wearing expressions of admittance.

"Yeah," Danny, Sam, and Tucker said at once.

"Then let me start with necessary background information. More than twenty years ago, a wizard by the name of Tom Riddle reappeared after a long disappearance. Once he had been a student at Hogwarts; I myself taught him Transfiguration before I became headmaster. I doubt there was ever a more brilliant student to pass through those walls. He was a direct descendent of the famous wizard Salazar Slytherin. It was Slytherin who started to spread the belief among wizards that they were superior to all of mankind. He refused to take in any student unless they came from an all-magic family, a pureblood family..."

"So people from non-magic families can be wizards?" Tucker interrupted.

"Yes. It was this that served as the origin for wizard racism against Muggles, like yourself. And such family habits passed on to our friend Riddle. While at school he was responsible for the death of a Muggle-born wizard. After leaving the school, he disappeared, travelling far and wide. He consorted with the very worst of our kind, sinking deeply into the Dark Arts and undergoing many dangerous, magical transformations. When he resurfaced, he was no longer the clever, handsome Hogwarts student, but Lord Voldemort," at the sound of this name, a sudden chill seemed to sink into everyone in the room. Besides Danny and his friends, the only ones who didn't seem upset by the sound of the name were Harry, Hermione, and Lupin.

"Voldemort?" Tucker repeated, sending another wave of the chill through everyone.

"Don' say the name," Hagrid muttered.

"Why?" Sam raised her eyebrows, "He said it," she pointed at Dumbledore.

"Well, most of us don' like sayin' it."

"Why?"

"Blimey, people are still scared! Yeh have no idea what it was like then...Dumbledore'll tell yeh, but yeh weren't there. Dark days, Sam, dark days. Dumbledore's the only one tha' You-Know-Who was ever afraid of. Hogwarts was one o' the only safe places left back then. "

"He was that bad, huh?" Tucker suddenly sounded nervous again.

"Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself," Hermione now spoke, very defiantly.

"Quite right," Dumbledore sighed, "I would advise you to call him by his real name. You have no reason yet to be frightened of it to begin with. Shall I continue?" he asked pleasantly.

"Yeah, go ahead," Danny nodded; this was twice as interesting as any history lesson he'd had to sit through in Casper High.

"Just as he was the most brilliant student Hogwarts had ever seen, so was he the most powerful wizard known. And unfortunately, the Dark Arts and his own upbringing had turned him into the Master of the Dark Arts. He began to search for followers, and unfortunately found a great many of them. Some he blackmailed, some wanted in on his power, others were merely afraid. They called themselves Death Eaters, and with the rest of the dark creatures Voldemort had gathered, became his army. It was indeed a terrible time. In our books the period is described as the Rise of the Dark Arts. He and his army began to take over everywhere. He killed all who stood up to him, and he and his army went on mass Muggle killings for sport. No one was prepared. There were resistances from the Ministry, yes, but..."

"Ministry?" Sam interrupted, "You mean there's a Ministry of Magic?"

"There is," Lupin said grimly, "You'll hear about them more soon, I promise you."

"The Ministry," Dumbledore continued, "was caught as off-guard as any of us, and their resistance fell apart. I attempted to continue the fight, forming the Order of the Phoenix. We managed to hold him back a bit, but we too were unprepared. He had the lead on us all, and the dark times continued. Remus was among the Order even then. There was my brother Aberforth, a friend from the Ministry, Alastor Moody...and Lily and James Potter," Danny and his friends turned around towards Harry. He had again backed into the corner, his head hung low.

"On Halloween, over fifteen years ago, Voldemort tracked down the Potters on information from a spy. His goal was to kill their newborn son, Harry," for a brief moment Dumbledore's eyes darted over to Harry before turning back, "He destroyed both Lily and James. He then turned on Harry, prepared to kill him...and lost not only his powers, but his strength and body. He was less than spirit, less than the meanest ghost. His curse had rebounded upon himself," Danny's eyes shot open at that and he found it impossible to blink. From the fear of his name and what Dumbledore had said, Voldemort was the worst wizard ever known. Vlad seemed like The Box Ghost compared to this guy. And he had died because of Harry? He was a newborn baby then!

"How..." he started to ask, but Dumbledore held up a hand to silence him.

"An ancient magic," he said simply, "A shield raised by his mother's dying to save him. Thus explains his scar. But Voldemort was not dead. Without a body he may have been, but he was alive. He had undergone so many transformations to insure his survival from the strongest of curses that not even the Killing Curse _Avada Kedavra_ could stop him. I did not know how long it would be until he attempted to return, but I knew that the day would come. And indeed, in Harry's first year, he was shown to be possessing the body of my Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Once again it was Harry who insured he was stopped, and again he seemed to be gone. Then, in the summer before Harry's fourth year, a Ministry official named Bertha Jorkins vanished without a trace in the place where Voldemort was certainly known to be last. A Muggle named Frank Bryce went missing in the village where Voldemort's father grew up. And during the second term, another Ministry official, Barty Crouch, disappeared within the grounds at Hogwarts in the midst of the competition known as the Triwizard Tournament. On the third task of the tournament, Harry and his fellow student Cedric Diggory tied by both grabbing the Triwizard Cup. It had been illegally set up as a Portkey, which is an enchanted object meant to transport whoever touches it from one place to another. It had been set up by a Death Eater in disguise as Moody, who was supposed to be serving as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. They were taken to the graveyard of Voldemort's father. The Death Eater who had betrayed Harry's parents was there. He killed Cedric and performed an ancient piece of Dark Magic. Bone of the father, flesh of the servant, and blood of the enemy; he managed it. Lord Voldemort had returned to his body. It was he and his servant whom had killed Ms. Jorkins and Mr. Bryce, learning from Jorkins about the Triwizard Tournament. His Death Eater at Hogwarts had killed Mr. Crouch and set everything up. Now he was back. He gathered his Death Eaters to him. There he and Harry duelled. Once again Harry escaped, returning Cedric's body to the school and informing me at once. The Death Eater at the school was caught. Unfortunately, the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge refused to believe the truth. He dismissed it as insanity caused by the attack on Harry's life all those years ago. The Death Eater could not prove us right; Fudge had brought a dementor into the castle, and it..."

"Killed him?" Tucker said frightendly.

"Worse, I'm afraid," Dumbledore shook his head, "It performed the Dementor's Kiss and sucked out his soul," a chill ran down Danny's spine. Had those things come after him and his friends for that reason? To suck out their souls?

"I re-called the Order of the Phoenix, recruiting some newer members," his eyes moved over to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, "This time we had the upper hand. But the Ministry of Magic was still determined to appear in control, and did their best to discredit us and our story."

"Fudge was afraid this was all part of a plan Dumbledore had to take over the Ministry," Mr. Weasley said, "He kept leaning on the Daily Prophet – that's the wizard's newspaper – to discredit Dumbledore and make Harry seem...a bit high on himself. They forced a Ministry official into Hogwarts as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher and it became necessary for Dumbledore to leave as headmaster at one point. Of course, that didn't go over too well with many," he gave Fred and George a sly smile, who returned it.

"Then," Dumbledore went on, "finally, just before the summer began, Voldemort and his Death Eaters managed to get into the Ministry in the dead of night. For the fourth time, it was Harry who stood in his way, and finally, the truth was revealed," Dumbledore took in a deep breath, finally finished. The three friends looked as though they'd been hit in the face with something heavy, Danny's mouth hanging open. He never in his wildest dreams imagined that anything like what he'd just heard could happen. Dark wizards, Death Eaters...and Harry Potter. He turned around again, and saw Harry in the same position as before. He couldn't see the lightning-bolt scar on his forehead now, and he doubted that Harry would like people staring at it. But if he really had managed that...stopping this Voldemort four times...how could anyone do that against an opponent who sounded so unstoppable?

"So...you guys joined up with the Ministry?" he asked hesitantly. Lupin let out a half-cough, half-laugh.

"We would have," Mr. Weasley said darkly.

"Why didn't you?"

"The Ministry got a bit shirty with us after they were proven wrong," Lupin smiled grimly, "Fudge was so bitter he refused to even reply to Dumbledore's offer to help. They've been trying to appear on top of things and in control ever since Voldemort broke in. We've still had to keep up the activities of the Order in secret," Danny heard Sam cough in shock at this, guessed what she was thinking, and had to agree; how could anyone be so stupid!?

"Of course, we still haven't explained what this has to do with you," Dumbledore said, "You'll recall Remus telling you how the dementors were the _former_ guards of Azkaban?" Danny understood this at once, but it made everything seem even more complicated.

"Why would he send..."

"That is the one thing I cannot answer. You said that this Plasmius was half-Muggle like yourself."

"Yeah. Doubt he'd be allowed in."

"And yet there seems to be no other explanation," Dumbledore sighed, "If this was mere Muggle sport I doubt Voldemort would be so foolish as to send three dementors so close to The Leaky Cauldron," no one spoke for a long time. After what seemed like an eternity passed...

"Could we find out some stuff about ghosts now?" Danny asked uncertainly. Dumbledore smiled.

"Yes, we have yet to get to that. Now, Danny, you say that only one ghost you've met is magic, and more like a genie than a wizard?" Danny nodded, "You say there is a ghost-zone?" Danny nodded again, "And you say your parents have broken down this ghost-zone and its ghosts into science?"

"Yep."

"Well, I think I know what you are then. What almost no wizards know is that there is more than one kind of ghost. The only other wizards who have ever come across that knowledge I believe are Merlin, my old friend Nicholas Flamel, and Voldemort."

"More than one kind of ghost?" Ron said, again looking confused. Harry had gotten up and walked over, listening intently, as all were doing.

"Yes," Dumbledore nodded, "And a very different kind it is. Muggles, when they die, can either move on or choose to stay as ghosts, as we can, but they must be put to rest. If they select to stay, they cannot simply roam the Earth. They enter Ghostland...your parents' ghost-zone," he said as Danny opened his mouth, "where they can escape to Earth if they find ways. But, if what Arthur has said about your parents' deductions is true, they were quite right; various paranormal forces and different kinds of ectoplasm can cause transformations and mutations, most ending in the gaining of an inhuman malevolence. A few older ghosts can manage to fight it off. The powers are of the paranormal, but are not magic. How your genie ghost obtained her talent is beyond my ability to answer. So, your parents were right. They just have yet to discover that other kinds of ghosts exist."

"So Danny can't do spells or anything?" Tucker said, a bit of disappointment in his voice.

"Not quite. While it is true that your powers are not magic, they are close enough to it that they could be enhanced through magic. You should even be able to learn a few spells."

"Seriously?" Danny asked. Of the three of them, none expect this after hearing that Danny's kind of ghost wasn't magic, but it was a pleasant surprise.

"Seriously," Dumbledore nodded, "But now I'm afraid we must decide what to do with you," the room turned serious again, "Voldemort is in control of the dementors, so to send them after you Plasmius would have to be in his service. If he is not, then for some unknown reason, he had them sent after you himself. In either case, it isn't a simple case of Muggle-killing or murder. I believe he was after something. There is no magical place in America that can fight off dementors or any of the Death Eaters, and the Order is too busy for anyone to come along with you. Very difficult," Dumbledore began to move his finger back and forth over the candle on his desk. The flame disappeared and reappeared as he moved his finger. He continued to do this for several minutes, his eyes locked on the flame.

"So...what are you gonna do with us?" Tucker finally asked impatiently. Dumbledore finally stopped, the flame on the candle still burning.

"I'm afraid," he sighed, "that all I can think of is to have you come to live at Hogwarts. There is no law against Muggles coming there if need be and Danny can join the ranks of the Hogwarts ghosts. After...certain mistakes on my part last year," he looked away so that his eyes could not meet Harry's, "I'm not tempted to leave anyone locked up in the Order's headquarters alone for any length of time."

"You mean, live at your school and not take lessons?" Tucker asked; Dumbledore nodded, "Well, that doesn't quite work for us. We go back to Amity in three days, and a girl I like likes me back for once over there, so..."

"Well, _I_ don't have a problem with it," Sam cut in, "But we'll have a hard time convincing our parents to let us stay here."

"And it is a bad idea to let my dad know anything about the wizarding world," Danny said, "He'd start blabbing it to anyone who'd listen and try and tear down Diagon Alley looking for ghosts."

"I think I can come up with a cover," Dumbledore now pulled out his wand, waved it around a bit, and three pamphlets floated into their laps, "You can read those on your way out. And I think it's time for you to head back. Harry will come by again in the evening to see what your parents have decided. Arthur, lead the way, and I would like to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione alone," with that, Mrs. Weasley, Lupin, Fred and George, and Ginny all headed downstairs fast. Danny, Sam and Tucker went over to Mr. Weasley, and Harry, Ron and Hermione walked over to Dumbledore's desk. He waited until Mr. Weasley had led Danny and his friends downstairs before speaking.

"Would you mind watching out for them at Hogwarts, assuming my little cover works?" they all nodded, "Thank you. Off you go then."

----

"I'm telling you," Tucker was complaining as they phased through the barrier to The Leaky Cauldron, Mr. Weasley having left them there to do business, "This is _not_ going to work!"

"Well, here's our other option," Danny said, a bit annoyed, "'Hi, Mom and Dad! Guess what, I'm a ghost, and we were attacked by three soul-sucking dementors and need to stay at a wizard school.' Anyway, I trust this Dumbledore guy."

"Me too," Sam nodded, "He seems pretty nice. And I'd really like to find out more about the wizard world!"

"Danny's parents can't let us go without asking our parents," Tucker continued to argue, "You think they're gonna let us!?" What none of them knew was that Jazz was listening out of sight on the staircase. She bit her lip. Much as she didn't want Danny disappearing for who-knows how long, if he was in trouble...

----

"'Your son has been accepted into the Weasley School of Education,'" Jack read from the pamphlet, "That Arthur Weasley gave you these?"

"We ran into him today," Danny laughed nervously, "Funny, huh?" they had finally shown the pamphlets to the Fentons. They were in Jazz and Sam's room. Maddie was looking over Sam's and Tucker's suspiciously.

"Well, I liked that Weasley fellow," Jack said, "And I could use some equipment from the lab over here to get a better reception on the ectoplasmic scale..."

"Jack, we are not moving to London just so the kids can attend a school like this," Maddie said defiantly.

"Are you _crazy!?_" Jazz suddenly shouted, "That's one of the best schools that isn't run by conceited snobs in the entire country! How can you deny your son the opportunity to attend school here!? I have never been so jealous of you in my life!" she marched over to Danny, "How do you get into this place!?" Danny looked at Jazz like he'd never seen her before. Was there really a school named the Weasley School of Education?

"Well..." Maddie looked over the forms again, "We can't send Sam or Tucker there..."

"I'll get the cell phones!" Jack ran over to his room. After about an hour passed he ran back in, beaming.

"It took a while to talk down the Mansons," he said, "But I finally got the OK to send 'em off to Weasley's!" Maddie looked over the pamphlets again. The school did look all right, they had permission, and there was the matter of ghosts...finally, she sighed in resignation.

"All right. But we are moving back at the end of the year whether they like the place or not! If you kids don't like that school and want to go home at any point, you just call us and well will go home! And we're not living here," she looked around, "I'll ask Tom if there's any housing available anywhere," she headed downstairs. After Jack and Jazz left, Danny looked over at his friends, more excited than he had been since the dementor attack.

"I told you it would work!" Tucker said, "You guys never listen to me, do you?" Danny and Sam were in such a good mood that they didn't even bother glaring at Tucker.

"I can't believe this...we're going to a wizard school!" Sam was so excited she barely seemed like herself. In this state she practically leapt off the bed and threw her arms around Danny. It took a few seconds for her to catch herself.

"Sorry," she said quickly, sliding back. They both looked nervously at Tucker, who was grinning slyly.

"Of all the times not to have a camera," he said coyly. Danny grabbed a pillow off the bed and smacked him in the head with it, and soon a pillow fight broke out. No one noticed that the door was still open, or that Jazz was peaking inside, beaming.

----

"Well?" Dumbledore asked. As agreed, Harry had come to get them later that evening. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had left with Ginny to do some last minute shopping for school, and Fred and George were downstairs running the joke shop. Danny, Sam, and Tucker were still barely able to contain their excitement, despite Sam's messed-up and Tucker's broken glasses from the pillow fight.

"They bought it," Danny said quickly, "We can go!" Dumbledore smiled warmly.

"Excellent," he said with a chuckle, "Excellent. I'll have you go with Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys when they head up to the London Underground. However, I must insist you stay with them, you hide yourselves with school robes, and tell _no one _why you are there. You agree?"

"Yeah, fine," at the moment, Danny was so excited that Dumbledore could have asked him to drop dead and become a full ghost and he'd agree to it. Not that he thought Dumbledore would ever ask him such a thing.

"Very good. You'll be wanting to learn more about our worlds, I assmue...Mrs. Granger, would you mind lending out some of your books?"

"Not at all," Hermione said.

"Thank you," Dumbledore slowly got up from the chair, "Well, I must be off. Molly's left some old robes from their family for you to use," he said to Danny, "See you all on the first of September," and with a wisp of his cloak, Dumbledore was gone.

"Well," Hermione said, turning to face Danny and friends, "Anything you'd like to know?"

"What do you have?" Sam walked over. Hermione pulled her suitcase over from the corner of the room and opened it, pulling out what seemed like an endless supply of books. As she read off the names, Sam stacked them up in a pile.

"Here's _Modern Magical History_," she said as she took one book out, "and _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts_..._Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century_ and a few Lockhart books – I'll tell you about him later – and then we have one of a few books on Merlin, and..." it kept going. Tucker walked over to Ron, who was setting up a chessboard. Danny noticed Harry had again retreated off into a corner of the room. Hearing a few of the book titles Hermione had read off made him remember Harry's part in the story Dumbledore had shared with them this morning. He doubted it was a good idea to mention it, but...

"Hey," he walked over.

"Hey," Harry said back.

"Yeah. What Dumbledore told us about your parents earlier..." this was difficult; Harry had not turned to look at him, but he did appear to grow more tense, "...I'm sorry," Harry didn't answer right away. Since Sirius died he never really felt like talking to anyone about anyone's death, but for some reason talking to this half-ghost kid two years under him felt different. He felt like Danny had been through a lot as well.

"Forget about it," he finally said.

"Did you go live with your grandparents?"

"Aunt and Uncle."

"Oh. What are they like?"

"Let's put it this way," he said, "They have the view most people had during medieval times."

"Ooh."

"Well, they haven't tried burning me at the stake yet. Not that it would work, ever since we learned the Flame Freezing Charm at school. So your parents ever try to hunt you down while you're a ghost?"

"Not yet."

"Hey Harry," Ron called over; he had talked Tucker into a chess match, and was winning with ease, "We've never talked about it. What'd you get on your O.W.L.s?" Harry had almost completely forgotten about those over the summer. He'd received his note and just left it aside. He now ran over to his suitcase and pulled it out.

Transfiguration: E

Charms: A

Herbology: E

Defence Against the Dark Arts: O

Potions: A

Care of Magical Creatures: E

Astronomy: A

Divinaion: D

"Not too bad then, is it?" Ron said, looking over the note, "I got A in most everything. A T in Divination and E in Defence Against the Dark Arts," it was a good thing Hermione was distracted with going over books with Sam; neither Harry nor Ron felt much like going into a debate with her over O.W.L.s.

"It'll be good to go back to Quidditch," Harry said, changing the subject, "Ginny still planning on taking over as Seeker?"

"Yeah. Why don't you ask to be captain?"

"Wasn't Katie planning to?"

"Yeah but..." Ron looked over at Danny and Tucker, who were wearing clueless expressions.

"What's Quidditch?" Danny asked.

"Wizard sport," Harry explained, "Played on broomsticks. A bit like football – soccer, for you – there's seven players on a team and four balls. The large red ball is the..."

"WHAT!?" they heard Sam shout.

"Something wrong?" Danny asked, a bit nervous about the answer.

"Hermione's just finished telling me about house-elves in the wizarding world!" she shouted; Ron rolled his eyes, "I can't believe how they're treated! I thought endangered speicies in our zoos had it bad!"

"It's really shameful," Hermione nodded, "And I haven't been able to convince anyone!"

"So what else is there?" Sam said, turning back to the books.

"Is she always like that?" Harry asked.

"She let a gorilla out of the zoo and tried to smuggle frogs out of our biology lab."

"Another Hermione," Ron sighed, "Impossible, aren't they?" Tucker nodded.

"Now, about Quidditch..."


	6. Arrival

Over the next few days leading up to the first of September, Danny and his friends spent more and more time in the upstairs of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, exchanging stories of life in Amity Park with information about the wizarding world. Sam and Hermione had even more in common than any of the guys had thought. Both had spent most of their time off in a corner, pouring over Hermione's old books and discussing the prejudice towards several groups, house-elves in particular. Lupin even gave his input, revealing that he was a werewolf. This had made it difficult getting to sleep at night back in The Leaky Cauldron, as Sam wouldn't leave their room and kept talking about everything she'd gone over with Hermione.

"And I thought she was annoying before!" Tucker said after she finally left one night.

The four guys had spent their time as far away from Sam and Hermione as possible, going over their own ideas of interesting topics. Quidditch sounded incredible; the three Chasers on each team trying to score with the red Quaffle, the two Beaters trying to control the vicious black bludgers, the Keeper defending his team's goal, and the Seeker after the tiny golden Snitch, which, if caught, ended the game and won the catcher's team one hundred and fifty points. Danny hated most sports played back in the Muggle world, but this one would definitely be worth watching. Harry was the Seeker for the Gryffindor team, his school house, and Ron was Keeper. Ron's sister Ginny was trying out for Chaser this year, though last year when Harry had been banned from the team, she had filled in as Seeker. From what Fred and George said, Harry was the best on the team, though Ginny wasn't far behind. The twins had been Beaters when they went to Hogwarts, and their replacements didn't sound very impressive.

For Harry and Ron, reliving last year's Quidditch games was nothing compared to all of Danny's ghost stories. Some of them were more hilarious than thrilling; the many exploits of The Box Ghost never ceased to amuse them. Technus's long-winded speeches were ridiculous. On the other hand, Skulker sounded like a genuine menace, and Tucker's would-be girlfriend Valerie Grey turned out to be a bitter ghost-hunter. Vlad Plasmius, whether he worked for Voldemort or not, seemed the worst of them all. Along with ghost stories, Tucker began showing off all of his electronics. These fascinated Mr. Weasley, and it took some convicning from his wife to keep him from taking them apart, enchanting them, and putting them back together. The ghost stories and technology often drew what seemed to be Ron's favourite saying; "Bloody hell!"

Finally, the first of September came. Hagrid had left shortly after Dumbledore a few days ago, so they were accompanied to London by the Weasley parents, Lupin, and Dumbledore's friend Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody. The nickname suited him in more than one area; he had a large, revolving magical right eye, and seemed inable to tell a handshake from an attempted murder. He made a point of thorougly examining Danny, Sam and Tucker with his magical eye, Danny twice as human and ghost. He finally accepted them as friendly, but made his purpose as a guard appointed by rhe Order very clear. After a good-bye to his parents in The Leaky Cauldron, Danny and his friends left with everyone. His parents had given them their new address; Maddie had found a house off out of London; Number 5, Pivet Drive. For some reason, this seemed to make Harry very happy, and he wouldn't say why.

They reached King's Cross at a quarter 'til eleven, taking the Knight Bus, a giant purple triple-decker bus with a sleazy-looking conductor named Stan Shunpike and a driver who took directions from a shrunken head that hung like lucky dice. It was far from the most pleasant ride Danny ever had, as the bus sped out of control through and around the busy London streets at unimaginable speeds, tossing everyone around when it had to stop for something or other. When they finally arrived, Mrs. Weasley had Danny and his friends get into their robes and raise up their hoods. Tucker was not too happy about being seen like that in the midst of so many people, but Danny and Sam didn't mind. They were bound to get looks anyway; Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all were pushing carts with their trunks in front of them, an snowy-white owl on Harry's, an exciteable owl on Ron's, and a kennel with a ginger cat on Hermione's.

"Here we are," Mrs. Weasley stopped them at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Danny looked around. Harry had mentioned that the platform wasn't exactly right in the station. Were they going to fall through a trap-door now?

"Ginny, you first, dear," Mrs. Weasley motioned for her daughter to move forward. When no one was looking, she ran right toward the barrier...and walked right through it, as if by phasing through it like Danny.

"Ron, you next," Ron moved up and ran towards the barrier as well, going right through it like Ginny. Then went Hermione, and finally Harry.

"Now let's see if your powers will work here like they do with the barrier to Diagon Alley," Mrs. Weasley turned to Danny. He looked over at Sam and Tucker, who nodded. Grabbing their arms, he went intangible and ran right towards the barrier, closing his eyes in case something went wrong. They went through the barrier and emerged in an immensely crowded platform, labelled _Platform Nine and Three-Quarters_ by the wrought-iron archway where the barrier had been behind them. The Weasley parents, Lupin, and Moody soon followed.

"Get on board, get on board!" Moody hurried them along over to Harry, "You're not to be discovered by anyone, you'll need a compartment to yourselves," his magical eye was rolling everywhere, as if he half-expected a dementor to leap out of nowhere. They had no time to stop and talk with anyone, even Ron and Hermione, as Moody shoved them aboard the train and practically threw Harry's trunk and owl up to him.

"Have a good term!" Mrs. Weasley called. Mr. Weasley smiled and waved, and Lupin stepped into the train after them.

"Why are you coming" Tucker asked.

"I've been re-appointed Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher," Lupin said lightly, "and have difficulty affording any other means of travel. Occupational hazard of being a werewolf. I'll trust you'll want to talk with Ron and Hermione, so I'll try and take one near you."

"Where'd they go anyway?" Sam asked.

"They're prefects," Harry explained, "They have to report to the prefect compartments first. Come on, let's go. And keep your hood up," he said to Tucker, who had let it slide back over his shoulders. They hurried down the carriage and managed to find an empty compartment. Harry threw his trunk across two seats, placed Hedwig's cage in the luggage rack, and sat down by the window. Danny, Sam and Tucker filed into the seats opposite him, Tucker taking the one by the window. It was a gloomy, cool day, with rain seeming likely. Lupin stopped by just before the train began moving to tell them he was two compartments down and to the left. A round-faced by named Neville Longbottom stopped by asking for a seat, but Lupin invited him to his compartment.

"So how long's this ride?" Tucker asked, looking out the window as the blurred images of houses passed by.

"Few hours," Harry yawned, "Ron and Hermione should come by after about an hour."

"I can't believe you guys don't get into school until September. We have to get in by August 18! And now they're trying to make the school year go all year! I can't deal with Lancer for that long!"

"I'd rather our school year be year-long."

"Duh! You guys get cool subjects!"

"Say that to Ron about Potions and Divination. Where'd you get that?" Sam had just pulled a book out of her robes.

"Hermione gave it to me to read. Why?" all three guys looked at her strangely. This was going to be a long ride.

----

Ron and Hermione indeed take quite a long time to arrive. While they were up at the front of the train, rain had begun to come down outside, growing heavier by the hour. At half past twelve the food trolley came, and Harry bought up a large number of strange treats that Danny and his friends had never seen before, including Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Pumpkin Pasties, and Chocolate Frogs. Tucker took an instant dislike to the beans, after getting an ear wax-flavoured one. Danny tasted a few, and fortunately, the worst he got was pepper. Sam was too busy reading to eat, and when she started talking about what was in the book, which turned out to be _Hogwarts, A History_, the fun disappeared in the compartment. Finally Hermione and Ron arrived, which got Sam to put down her book. Harry took his owl, which turned out to be named Hedwig, off the luggage rack for Harry and Tucker to throw his trunk up so they could sit down.

"Well," Hermione sighed, grabbing a Chocolate Frog, "Malfoy certainly looks like he's had a swell summer. He just tried to land a first-year in detention before we've even reached the school!"

"Who?" Danny, Sam and Tucker asked together.

"Draco Malfoy," Ron said through bites of his Pumpkin Pasty, "The world's biggest git. His dad's right in You-Know-Who's inner circle."

"You mean Voldemort?" Ron winced at the name, but nodded, "And he's allowed in school!?"

"Unfortunately, since there's no proof he goes into the same kind of Dark Magic as his dad, there's no way to keep him out," Hermione said, "He's always hanging around with two thick-headed pigs named Crabbe and Goyle. Their fathers are Death Eaters too. They're all horrible, whether or not they do get into their fathers' work. All of their pureblood superiority," she let out a grim sound that could have sounded like a laugh

"I take it you guys don't get along then," Tucker said.

"Not since the train ride first year," Harry took another Frog. After a few minutes, the door slid open. A pale boy with a pointed face, slick white-blonde hair, and a smug expression stood in the doorway, flanked by two large, muscle-bound thugs who didn't appear to have much in the way of brains. Judging by the looks on Harry, Ron and Hermione's faces, Danny guessed that these three were Draco Malfoy and his group.

"New members to your crowd, Potter?" the pale boy asked, looking over at Danny, Sam and Tucker, who quickly raised their hoods up farther, "Planning on letting them in on all your old adventures? Or perhaps you're blathering on about all the Dark Lord's done to you again?"

"Shove off, Malfoy," Ron muttered.

"Not very friendly today, are we?" he turned back to Danny, "I wouldn't associate myself with these types if I were you. Blood traitors and Mudbloods," Danny grimaced under his hood. He'd known this kid for under a minute and already took an instant dislike to him. He was a smarter, more aristocratic version of Dash.

"Well?" Malfoy's tone went angry, "Answer!"

"Any problems here, boys?" a voice came from behind Malfoy. Lupin had heard the noise down the train and now stood just outside the doorway.

"And what are you doing on the train?" Malfoy sneered.

"Professor Dumbledore has kindly reinstated me as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher," Lupin smiled slightly, his tone mild, "I ask again, is there a problem here?"

"No – _Professor_," Malfoy mumbled, "Let's go," he, Crabbe, and Goyle headed up toward their compartment.

"I'd lock the door from now on if I were you," Lupin said quietly once they had gone, and headed back to his compartment. Ron, who was closest to the door, quickly slid the door shut and bolted it.

"I can't wait to catch him alone with some old D.A. members like the end of last year," he grinned.

"You are a _prefect_," Hermione hissed.

"What's the D.A.?" Tucker asked. And so explanations began anew...

----

By the time they had arrived at the Hogsmeade station, the rain had broken into a full-blown storm, the wind howling and lightning flashing across the clouds. There was a mass scramble to get onto the tiny platform and out to the carriages as quickly as possible.

"Firs' years this way!" they heard Hagrid's voice call out from over the platform. All of the new studentsd hurried over, terrified, to the giantic outline of Hagrid in the rain.

"First years traditionally sail across the lake to Hogwarts," Hermione explained. They all were about to climb into a carriage together when Lupin ran up to them.

"Dumbledore sent down a private carriage," he said, "He wants you three to come up to Hogwarts in it instead of with everyone else."

"Oh...fine," Danny said. Lupin led him, Sam and Tucker over to the carriage, which looked the same as any of the other ones; horseless, old, and black. Lupin climbed in with them, and it took off towards the castle by itself, leaving the others behind.

----

The Great Hall of Hogwarts looked as astonishing as it always did during a feast, the thousands of candles that lit the room floating in the air and the teachers all seated at the High Table. The rain from outside seemed to keep coming down through the bewitched ceiling. Despite all this, the atmosphere was extremely melancholy. The Sorting of the first years over, all of the students were now at their House tables, watching the welcome-back act the conductor of the choir had prepared this year. The conductor was waving his wand like a baton, manipulating the floating violin, guitar, bagpipes, tin whistle and bhodrán before him. They were playing a strange, instrumental version that those of us in reality know as the Danny Phantom theme.

"Doesn't this music seem familiar?" Tucker whispered.

"Shut it," Sam muttered. After arriving at the castle, Professor Minerva McGonagall had met them and led Danny away. She said that they would meet back up after the feast was over. Dumbledore had granted permission for Sam and Tucker to attend the feast, but they would have to stay under an Invisibility Cloak, leant out by Moody. They were now standing off in the corner of the room under the cloak, watching. The Sorting had been interesting; an extremely old, filthy old hat had been brought out, placed on the head of all the first years, and determined whether they belonged in Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin. From what Sam had read in Hogwarts, A History on the train and Dumbledore's story about Voldemort, Slytherin was by far the worst house of the four. Now Dumbledore, dressed in astonishing purple and golden robes, rose to his feet.

"Welcome!" he said, bringing the room to attention, "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! Now I would like to say a few words before we begin our excellent feast. First, to all first years – and some of our older students – the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. Our caretaker Mr. Filch, for what he assures me is the seven hundred and fifty-first time, has requested that I remind you that performing magic in the corridors between classes is not permitted, as well as all the other things on the still extensive list on his office door. We have one staff change this year. Everyone, please join me in welcoming back Professor R.J. Lupin, who has agreed to return to the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher," there was a huge wave of applause at this announcement, particuarliy at the Gryffindor table. Sam could make out Harry, Ron and Hermione, who were clapping and cheering louder than anyone. It was only at the Slytherin table where applause was unenthusiastic and scattered.

"And finally," Dumbledore continued, "This year, several rooms in the far end of the castle on the fifth-floor corridor are out of bounds to all," for a brief instant, his twinking eyes seemed to flash towards to where Sam and Tucker stood under the Cloak, but he quickly turned back to the House tables.

"Oh, and one more thing," Dumbledore said, "There is a new ghost from outside the castle that has joined us, one that our forth-years should be able to identify with; Daniel Fenton. Now that everything of importance is out of the way," he sat down, "Tuck in!" suddenly, all the dishes on the House tables piled with food. At least twenty ghosts now began to float in through the walls and down towards the tables. Among them was Danny, who hung in the air with a nervous look on his face. As all the other ghosts here were a different kind, they looked different. He stood out a bit too much among the pearly-white, transparent bodies around him. Rather than go towards any table, he floated off to the corner of the room opposite Sam and Tucker, watching the proceedings. No one seemed to pay him any mind. While waiting with the other ghosts, he had met Peeves the poltergeist. This guy was far worse than The Box Ghost could ever end up being in terms of sheer annoyance. On the other hand, Nearly Headless Nick wasn't too bad. He was the ghost of Gryffindor House, and Danny could see him talking with Seamus Finnigan. Hogwarts was definitely an interesting school.

After the feast, Danny, Sam and Tucker stayed behind as the students, ghosts and teachers filed out. Hagrid remained behind, and once everyone had left, called for them to come over. Sam and Tucker took off the Invisibility Cloak and Danny flew over.

"Time ter show yeh ter yer rooms," he said, "Tha's why the rooms in the fifth-floor is off-limits. C'mon," he led them out the Great Hall and to the staircases. The most notable thing about them is the fact that they kept moving around. While climbing up one staircase, it changed positions right in the middle. Tucker collapsed, and Sam began to fall. Danny caught her before she fell down the staircase completely.

"Yeh'll have ter watch out fer that," Hagrid chuckled. They kept going. As they went, Danny noticed all the figures in the paintings that lined the walls of the castle all moved. They pressed onward, the walk seeming to take hours. Twice Tucker asked if they were going in circles, and Danny sometimes felt like saying something himself; this was ridiculous.

"Here we are," Hagrid finally stopped, pointing to three rooms, "Harry, Ron and Hermione'll come by on weekends and yeh can wander about. Jus' be sure teh wear the Cloak," he looked at Sam and Tucker, said "G'night," and headed off. The rooms were large and comfortable, some clothes laid out and Tucker's bags of electronics on his bed. Exhausted but in good spirits, Danny threw himself down on his bed and fell asleep right away.


	7. First Day Back

Harry piled food onto his breakfast plate, Ron and Hermione sitting around him. None of them spoke, though there was a great deal of whispering and chatter around them. It had been like this ever since they got off the Hogwarts Express. Harry had stopped reading the _Daily Prophet_ after last year; whether they now believed him or not, he'd not felt like giving them so much as a Muggle coin. Yet it seemed they had been busy with stories on the Death Eaters over the summer; rumoured sightings, Auror deaths, strange disappearances...anything that could be remotely connected to Voldemort had ended up all over the papers. The Sorting Hat had given another warning song this year. The way some students were talking, you'd think they were Moody after taking Polyjuice Potion. Seamus and Dean had immediately asked him about the scene outside The Leaky Cauldron; the _Prophet_ had apparently picked up on that as well. As Lupin had told Danny, all those who had made him and Dumbledore look like lying crackpots last year were still more than a bit bitter over being made fools when proven wrong, and it showed. One article had still claimed that Voldemort was not back, and that these attacks were really orchestrated by Dumbledore in his plans to take over the Ministry, It did come as a bit of a consolation to see everyone's indignation on their behalf, instead of believing every word they said. That was another topic floating around the tables now.

"New course schedules," Hermione slid Harry's and Ron's over to them.

"History...I could really do without it this year," Ron sighed, "Managed to get into Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures...bloody hell, still with the Slytherins! Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts later in the week...I can't wait to see what Lupin has this year..."

"Where's Transfiguration on your list?" Hermione looked over at Ron's schedule, "And neither of you have Potions! What did you get on your O.W.L.s," knowing they couldn't put it off any longer, Harry and Ron pulled their grades from their robes; they'd brought them down in case this came up.

"Just an A in Transfiguration!" Hermione cried out when she saw Ron's grade, "A T in Divination! Altogether just eight O.W.L.s? Ron, the only thing better than an A on here is..."

"Thank you, Hermione," he grabbed his parchment back quickly, his ears turning pink.

"And Harry...eleven O.W.L.s, that's not bad, but you wanted to be an Auror, didn't you? You can't expect to get in now, Snape will never..."

"He won't take anything higher than an O, I know," he muttered. Required for an Auror or not, Harry was still not ready to be anywhere Professor Snape after last year, "I can always find something else to do."

"Yes, but...oh, never mind," she looked over his grades again, "Where's your History of Magic grade?"

"Must've gotten torn off the parchment. It was a P."

"A P! After all those notes I let you use?"

"Y'mean I'm stuck with Hermione alone in that class?" Ron shouted. Hermione still looked shocked.

"Harry...oh, never mind...an O in Defence Against the Dark Arts – well, you were bound to pass that one, but still..."

"Let me guess," Ron smirked, "You got an O in everything."

"Well...yes," they could tell she was trying not to sound too pleased with herself, but that didn't stop them from grinning even more.

"So...Harry," she said abruptly, "Are you going to apply for Quidditch captain?" it was a bit of surprise that Hermione had changed the subject to something like Quidditch, but still a relief.

"Maybe. I was going to talk to Katie about it."

"Well, you've got more free lessons this year," she said it with a bit of disapproval in her voice, "You could catch up with her then."

"We'll have to spend some of that time watching out for the Muggles," Ron said in a whisper. They'd been told that the out-of-bounds rooms this year were where Danny and his friends were staying, and were supposed to check in on them during the weekends...though based on what Sam had told Hermione about Tucker, they would probably be wise to look in more often.

"How do you think they're doing?"

----

"I can't believe it!" Tucker shouted, "It's horrible! An outrage! A CATASTROPHE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Tuck, knock it off," Danny sighed.

"Knock it off? _Knock it off!?_ You do not tell a man to knock it off when none of his electrical necessities work!" Danny sighed again. It was true; ever since they'd arrived, none of Tucker's gadgets had been able to work. Danny would have been more sympathetic, except that Tucker had been moaning about it non-stop all morning. They'd all gone over to Danny's room for breakfast, and thanks to Tucker it was impossible to enjoy. Breakfast had been brought to them by one of the house-elves that Hermione (and now Sam) seemed to feel were oppressed slaves ("Dobby is liking his work here, miss!" the excited elf had said to Sam when asked about it, "Dumbledore is paying Dobby, he is, and Dobby is getting one day off a month!"). After putting up with Tucker for as long as possible, Sam had left under the Invisibility Cloak to go to the library, using a map Harry had lent them, on the insistence that they never let it out of their sights if they were using it to move around.

"Why didn't we go with Sam again?" Danny asked Tucker, his voice monotone.

"You're supposed to be helping me fix this stuff!"

"We've tried everything already."

"This place is crazy! When we got here it looked like an old ruin with a sign that said not to enter!"

"It's probably a spell to keep Muggles away. It looked fine when I went ghost," Tucker's bad mood persisted, "Why don't you grab one of these books Hermione lent us and..."

"Hold up," Tucker marched over, looking deadly serious, "You know what you're asking me to do Danny? You're asking me to read. R-E-A-D. Read. _Reading, Danny!_ We're not in school...well, we are, but we're not students, and outside class, I don't read!"

"Come on. You've been moping long enough. Some of this stuff's pretty cool," he turned back to The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, which he had turned to as a way to drown out Tucker's complaints, "Did you know Dumbledore defeated some Dark Wizard named Grindelwald in 1945?"

"Fine! You won't help me, I'll figure it out myself!" he turned back to his electronics. Knowing he was likely to start back up again, Danny set the book down and went ghost.

"I'm gonna try and catch up with Sam," Tucker didn't even answer. He phased through the door and headed down the corridor. Even though it was lighter than last night, the long halls and passageways were still dark, the paintings moved around so much you couldn't rely on them to keep track of where you were going, and the staircases moved. Rather than risk falling over when a staircase decided to move from by one door to another, Danny floated around, phasing through walls and looking for the library, though how he'd find it without the map or find Sam was beyond him. He'd been told where they were last night in the Great Hall, but he couldn't see under the Invisibility Cloak, even in ghost-mode. Going up one hallway, he ran into Peeves the Poltergeist.

"Ah, the new ghostie runs into Peeves!" he cackled, flying in circles around Danny, "Poor, poor Danny boy...dead so young..."

"Yep," Danny sighed to himself, "This guy is definitely worse than The Box Ghost," Peeves had begun singing.

"_Dim, dim Danny...oh dim, dim Danny..._

_Dead so young, his brain must be dung_

_Oh dim, dim Danny..._"

"I so don't have time for this," and with that, a huge circle of green ectoplasmic energy shot up around Danny, about two or three yards in diameter. It sent Peeves flying down the corridor, cursing. Smiling lightly to himself, Danny phased through a wall and kept going. Unfortunately, finding the library continued to be a lot more difficult than getting rid of Peeves. The castle seemed to go on forever in all directions, and fifteen minutes later Danny found himself in the same corridor as when he had met Peeves.

"This is ridiculous," he mumbled.

"Hello there!" a cheery voice called from behind. The Gryffindor ghost, Nearly Headless Nick, was there, "Having trouble finding your way?"

"Oh, yeah. Do you know where the library is?"

"Of course! Follow me...Daniel, was it?"

"Yeah. Call me Danny, though."

"Very well, Danny. Let's head to the library," Nick flew down the corridor, Danny right behind him. At least there was one ghost in this school he knew he could ask for help.

"I've been meaning to ask you," Nick said as they floated down a few flights of stairs, "Why is it you have such a different appearance from us other ghosts?"

"Oh. Uh..." Danny tried to think of a good excuse, "A spell my friend cast went haywire and...hit me."

"I see," Nick nodded, apparently buying the story, "And that is a most interesting outfit you're wearing."

"Thanks," he did have a point; against the wizards robes of the students and teachers and the old-fashioned clothes of most of the ghosts, a black-and-silver lab suit did kind of stand out.

"Here we are," Nick said, "The library. If you get lost again, feel free to seek out my help. And don't worry; I'm sure you'll find your way around very quickly.

"Thanks," Danny said, and Nick floated off. Danny looked around; compared to the rest of the castle, the library actually looked somewhat like the one back in Amity Park.

"Wow," he said, heading down through the bookshelves, "Hard to believe this place is..." he felt himself run into something, but couldn't see a thing.

"Sam?"

"Danny?"

"Who's there?" they heard the librarian's voice. Danny reached around a bit, grabbed Sam's arm, and phased them upstairs.

"Did you get your books?" he asked Sam, who had moved the cloak back so that Danny could just see her.

"Yep. And I still have the map."

"Can I see it?" she handed it to him. The library wasn't as far from their rooms as he'd thought; the pacing footsteps with a ribbon that read, "Tucker Foley," weren't too far away on the scale from where they were. Danny had gone around in circles a few times before meeting Nick.

"Still can't get his stuff to work, can he?" Sam asked, looking at Tucker's footsteps on the map.

"Nope," he looked over the map a bit more. "Hagrid's Hut" was marked a bit away from the castle, and Hagrid's name appeared along with a collection of others. Harry's, Ron's, and Hermione's names were among them.

"Wonder what kind of creatures Hagrid has?"

"Danny, we shouldn't interrupt lessons and we're not supposed to go out of the castle unless..."

"Come on," smirking, he grabbed her hand and phased them out through the wall.

----

"Gather 'round, now!" Hagrid called, "Great teh see yeh all again! Have a great year planned!" it was their first class of the new term, Care of Magical Creatures. The class was gathering around Hagrid's hut. There were no crates or boxes lying around, so whatever Hagrid had for them, it wasn't going to be small or an egg.

"Got a great year planned!" Hagrid beamed, rubbing his hands together, "Been talkin' ter a friend in Romania; we may be goin' on a trip!" Harry, Ron and Hermione all exchanged nervous looks; in addition to his duties for the Order, Ron's brother Charlie was still studying dragons in Romania. After his experience with a Hungarian Horntail during the Triwizard Tournament, Harry was not eager for another encounter with the dragon.

"Tha'll be late in the year, though," Hagrid said, "Righ' now, we're goin' ter start trainin' creatures and workin' with 'em instead of jus' meetin' a new one ev'ry class. Let's start with some riding lessons," he led them along the edge of the forest, and stopped at the paddock. Three unicorns were inside, drawing admiring looks from the girls.

"Figured we'd start with these. Now yeh've learned unicorns with Professor Grubby-Plank," he said, "She told yeh that they prefer a woman's touch, unicorns. That's true, but we've got teh the boys started with 'em if we're gonna get ter riding anything. Besides, it's only fair. Ridin' unicorns is just like bein' on a horse, 'cept the horn. Don't grab it, 'cause they won't like that. Now, any girl want to come and try ridin' one? Just ter give a demonstration?" a few girls raised their hands, including Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown. No one was surprised to see Hermione's hand shoot up in the air.

"Hermione! Come on up," the rest of the girls put their hand down, looking a bit disappointed. Hermione approached the paddock door.

"Yeh've ridden any Magical Creatures, Hermione?" Hagrid asked. Hermione opened her mouth, but didn't speak. She had ridden Buckbeak the hippogriff with Harry in their third year and thestrals the past year, but none of the students were supposed to know that. They had suspected that Sirius told Hagrid about it once they joined the Order, but they had no way of knowing for sure.

"...No," she said. Out of the corner of his eye, Hagrid gave Hermione the smallest of winks.

"Well, here's yer firs' chance," he unlocked the paddock gate. The white unicorn pawed the ground nervously, but did nothing drastic. Hermione moved towards it slowly, the class watching intently. Harry could see Malfoy muttering to his gang of Slytherins, probably hoping she'd get gorged on the unicorn's horn. Harry looked back up towards the unicorn. Hermione had made it all the way over, and was now stroking the unicorn's neck.

"Hop on its back," Hagrid called, and Hermione did so, a bit more nervously than when she had been walking, "Give it a kick in the sides, and hold on ter its back," following instructions, she lightly kicked her heels into the unicorn's sides, and it took off trotting at a mild tempo. Hermione had her hands around its neck and still looked a bit nervous, but she was doing a good job. Malfoy looked disappointed.

"Well done, Hermione!" Hagrid clapped, and the Gryffindors and a few Slytherins followed his lead. Then he let out a whistle. Four more unicorns came out from the forest, looking at the class nervously and not approaching the one Hermione was riding.

"Oooooooooh!" squealed Lavender Brown, "Hagrid, how did you manage to get five?"

"Yeh need ter know where teh look," he winked, "Let's see how the boys get on with 'em. Any volunteers?" figuring that a ride on a unicorn couldn't be any worse than a ride on a hippogriff or a thestral, Harry stepped forward. Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan followed; and after some hesitation, Ron came forward, pushing Neville Longbottom in front of him.

"Well done!" Hagrid beamed at them, "Now, yer likely ter find this a bit different than broomsticks...or hippogriffs," he looked over at Harry, "'Cause yeh'll be on the ground and there's no wings. Now these five, they're used ter me. If yeh have any trouble, I'll be able ter keep 'em calm. Go towards 'em slowly, and I mean _slowly_. Took me forever teh get 'em ter be comfortable aroun' me."

"Oh, what a surprise!" Malfoy said loudly enough for everyone to hear, "Really a shocker, that is!"

"Shut up, Malfoy," Harry turned to face him, but Hagrid held out a hand to keep him from walking anywhere.

"Well then, Malfoy," Hagrid said in a strange, relaxed voice, "If yeh think yeh can get on better with a unicorn, go right ahead," he motioned towards the open paddock doors as Hermione hopped down from her unicorn and walked back to the main group. Malfoy's attitude faded away at once, and he looked a bit fearful.

"...Fine then," he put on a wide smirk, attempting to remain calm in front of the Slytherins. He hopped over the paddock fence rather than go through the open door and headed towards the unicorns. All five of them began backing away, pawing at the ground and snorting at Malfoy.

"I'll manage this," Harry could hear Malfoy say, "If they'll go for a Mudblood girl, then they're not about to..." the unicorn nearest Malfoy suddenly reared up, kicking its front legs around in the air. It brought its legs down hard and charged at Malfoy, its head lowered so the horn was aimed right at him. All dignity and pride aside, Malfoy took off as fast as he could as Hagrid ran into the paddock. Malfoy's robes were flowing a bit too loosely around him; he caught his foot in them, falling face-first into a muddy patch of ground close to the forest. Hagrid just managed to get between him and the unicorn in time.

"Woah!" he waved his arms around, and the unicorn slowed down, though it reared again, "Woah, boy!" it took a few more moments and some gentle whispering in its ear to fully calm the unicorn, but it eventually settled, trotting back over to its fellows.

"Apparently, it don't make much difference whether it's a hippogriff or a unicorn in yer case," Hagrid said, looking over the mud-drenched Malfoy, "They all want teh charge yeh down," the Gryffindors laughed a bit as Hagrid seized the hood of Malfoy's robes and lifted him to his feet, sending him back over to Crabbe and Goyle. All three through murderous glances at Hagrid from the corner of their eyes.

"Now," he suddenly smiled, "If our five will please come on over," though a bit shaken up at seeing the unicorn's reaction to Malfoy, Harry walked into the paddock slowly. The other four seemed more shaken. Ron wore his usual terrified expression whenever something he found even remotely unpleasant came up, Neville had backed up a few steps, and Seamus and Dean both gulped.

"Don' be shy," Hagrid nodded towards the unicorns, "Just mind yer manners," with a sigh, Dean and Seamus followed Harry into the paddock. Neville needed some shoving, but all five got in and looked closely at the unicorns. They had again retreated back towards the forest, the one who had run down Malfoy still looking ready to pick up speed again.

"Take it _slowly_, you five," Hagrid emphasised the third word in a cautious tone, "Go even slower than Hermione did," none of the boys argued. Harry doubted they could go any slower; Neville was taking one step every ten seconds. A full three minutes passed before they were a little over halfway to them, and at this point, the unicorns began stirring restlessly.

"Let's hold it there," Hagrid called from behind them, "Take it one at a time. Neville, you first," Neville turned to Hagrid, a look of pleading horror on his face, but eventually he turned back and started forward, even slower than before. One of the unicorns moved towards him as cautiously as he was moving towards them. The entire class watched in anticipation, Malfoy muttering under his breath. Finally, the unicorn let Neville pat its head and proceeded to lick his face.

"Well done, Neville!" Hagrid called, "Next!" the remaining four boys went one at a time. Ron's unicorn didn't mind having him around, but it did seem to mind if he tried touching; every time Ron stuck his hand out the unicorn walked just out of reach. While they didn't charge them down, Dean's and Seamus's unicorns definitely did not want them around. Harry had the one that had charged down Malfoy. It just stood in place, staring at him with no sign of wanting to do anything. Harry did not know whether he should keep going or not, but as Hagrid had asked why he wasn't moving, he kept going forward. The unicorn stuck out its head and let Harry pat it.

"Now, let's see if they'll mind yeh riding on 'em," Hagrid walked over, "Ron, I'd think yeh'd better give up. She don't seem teh mind yeh, but yer not havin' much luck tryin' to let yeh pat her," as Ron had been trying to touch the unicorn for the last few minutes with no success, that might have been an understatement. Shrugging and throwing his arms up in resignation, Ron ran back over to the crowd by the paddock. Hagrid picked up Neville and set him down on the unicorn's back. It took off, throwing Neville forward and his arms wrapping around its neck. It ran a full three circles around the paddock, during which time Harry's unicorn had bent down to let him climb on its back. Neville's reared up, pawed the air, and came down, trotting around in a circle once more. Hagrid, Harry, and the entire class save Malfoy and his cronies broke into tremendous applause as Neville came down from the unicorn, shaking but smiling. Harry's unicorn walked around a bit, jumped over a fallen tree, and head directly over to Hagrid, who helped Harry down.

"Well done, the pair of yeh!" he grabbed both Harry and Neville into one-armed hugs, the class still clapping, "Well done!" he let them go and turned to the class, "Anyone else want a go at 'em? Anyone at all?" as the class flew towards Hagrid, their hands up, Harry looked up. Danny was floating above him, a grin on his face. Harry waved up at him.

"Harry, what are you..." Hermione looked up to see where he was waving and let her jaw drop, "...What is he _doing!?_ We're in the middle of a class, someone could see him, and..."

"Ghosts are allowed to leave the building, aren't they? They can float around the grounds, can't they?"

"Yes, but...oh, well...I guess for him it's not a problem," she waved up as well. Danny waved, waited until they had gone back over to the group, and looked over his shoulder. Not wanting it to look like he was supporting someone under an Invisibility Cloak, Sam was clinging to his back.

"OK, we saw the lesson, it was cool," she said quietly, "Can we go back in now?"

"Yeah, we'd better check on Tuck. He's probably tried getting someone to come in and fix his stuff," the potential catastrophes of such an occurrence hit him like lightning, "Let's get back in there," he sped towards the castle, Sam barely holding on.

----

Tucker had not tried to get someone to fix his gadgets; he'd spent too much time brooding and pressing buttons, desperate to get them up and running. Nothing had proven successful, and Danny and Sam had gone into her room to look over the map and the books Hermione had lent Sam rather than put up with him. About half-an-hour after they had looked in on Hagrid's class, a knock came at the door. It was Harry and Ron, both grinning.

"Nice of you to drop by," Ron said.

"I thought you guys were only coming by on weekends," Sam raised her eyebrows.

"Well, we have a few more free lessons this year, and sitting around studying on the first day doesn't sound too exciting," Ron threw himself down on the bed, looking over all the books, "Think Hermione's lent you enough of these?"

"Do you still have the map?" Harry asked. Danny handed it to him.

"That thing's great," he said, "Where'd you get it?"

"My dad and Lupin wrote it with some friends when they were at school."

"There you guys are!" Tucker had heard them come up, "Why the heck won't any of my electronics work in this place!?"

"You mean you didn't tell him?" Harry turned to Sam, who slapped her forehead.

"Oh, yeah, that's right!"

"What!?" Tucker shouted.

"It's in this," Sam tossed him Hogwarts, A History, "Electricity can't work here. There's too much magic."

"_WHAT!?_ You mean I have _nothing_ to listen to my music on!?"

"There's got to be a wizard's wireless around here somewhere," Ron said.

"A what?"

"Er – it's kind of like a radio, but magic instead of electrical," Harry explained. He didn't have one, but he didn't need one to figure that out.

"Really?" Ron nodded, "SWEET! What kind of music do you guys get?"

"Where do I start?" Ron stood up, put an arm around Tucker's shoulder, and led him off to Danny's room, "There's the Weird Sisters – they were here for the Yule Ball, I'll tell you about that later – you can get great Quidditch broadcasts..."

"Another Tucker?" Sam said, an annoyed look on her face, "This is gonna be a long year."


	8. Sabreus

For the most part, the rest of the week passed by pretty well for Danny and his friends. With some help from Dobby, Ron had managed to get a functioning wizard's wireless for Tucker to use. Unfortunately, Tucker's interests in music were limited to rock, pop, and rap. As all of the music from the wizarding world consisted of choir, drums, guitars, lute, cello, bagpipes, tin whistle, bhodrán, violin, French horn, oboe, flute, piccolo, English horn, and different types of chamber music, there was not much Tucker found very pleasing. Ron had been coming up more and more during his free lessons, and he and Tucker were now engaging each other in long-winded arguments on which type of music was better, Tucker not able to give samples of his music. Sam thought the wizarding music was wonderful, and Danny thought it was pretty good. Rather than listen to the debates, Danny spent most of his time going over the Marauder's Map (he finally noticed the introduction at the front fold) and exploring the school. He'd gotten along well with all the ghosts, mainly because he was the only one besides the Bloody Baron of Slytherin house who could now control Peeves. Any time they met each other in the hallways, the poltergeist either took off in the other direction or asked in a panicky voice if Danny needed anything at all. Sam occasionally went along, but spent most of her time reading. Hermione's schedule for her to stop by, but Harry came by once and a while.

Of all his years at Hogwarts, this was by far the one where Harry had the least amount of homework. Care of Magical Creatures, Herbology, Transfiguration, Charms, Astronomy, and Defence Against the Dark Arts amounted to six subjects, and Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were the only ones liable to give them any large amounts of homework. Hagrid's classes were now finally popular with a majority of the students. They kept at riding unicorns through the week, Ron finally getting one to let him ride on it, and Dean and Seamus being accepted by them. Even Malfoy couldn't find a way to ruin the classes, as most of the Slytherins were enjoying the lessons with the Gryffindors. Harry had expected Transfiguration without Ron to be difficult, but not this difficult. He was sitting by Hermione now, whose constant hand raising made it hard to think clearly, even if she'd done it the past six years. He also had no one to talk about the lessons with who didn't go into long-winded lectures. Charms, Herbology, and Astronomy were all bearable. Above all else, the absence of Potions, Divination, and History of Magic really helped him relax this year at Hogwarts. He was able to avoid Snape the entire first week.

On Thursday, just before lunch, they had their first new Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson with Lupin. Everyone had their wands out, waiting in anticipation. After a few minutes, Lupin came in, looking shabby as ever but smiling. His entrance was greeted by a loud round of applause by the class.

"Thank you," he said as he set down his briefcase, "Thank you. It's good to be back. Now, Dumbledore's left me a few notes on what you've covered since third year. Impostor or not, my immediate successor did handle curses, jinxes, and hexes extremely well. As for your last year..." he seemed to just catch himself from saying something inappropriate, "Well, I'm glad you took things into your own hands," he looked over at Harry, who wore a sly grin.

"Well, for this year, we have a few more Dark creatures to cover, and a couple of curses. I've been talking to Dumbledore about maybe trying a Duelling Club again after your second year so we can start on combat practice. Now, if you'll follow me," he led them out the door and down to the Great Hall. The four House tables were gone, and the golden stage from their second year was up against one wall. Lupin climbed up on the stage, the class turning to face him.

"The spell we are going to learn today is now mainly used for sporting purposes," Lupin said, "If we do manage a Duelling Club, I foresee it will come in handy. It's relatively easy to perform. You stand on guard as if fencing," he did so, holding his wand out like a sword, "and utter the incantation – _sabreus!_" suddenly, his wand became a gleaming silver rapier. Harry noticed the carving of a wolf's head serving as the pommel, and designwork laid into the guard and blade depicting a running pack. The rest of the class seemed quite taken with the sword.

"The Blade Spell," Lupin explained, holding his sword up into the light, "Just as no two wands are alike, each sword will be unique to the wizard who conjures it. Now, everyone spread out," the class moved apart, leaving three or four feet between each person, "Assume the on guard position," everyone did so, "and – _sabreus!_"

"_Sabreus!_" the class echoed, and in a flurry of silver, everyone's wand became some kind of sword. Harry looked over his own; it bore more than a passing resemblance to the ruby-studded sword of Godric Gryffindor he had used against the basilisk in his second year. The pommel had the shape of a stag's head, complete with antlers, and just below the hilt was engraved the name – _Prongs_.

"Very good," Lupin's voice came back through everyone's admiring their blades, "Well done, indeed. Now, the disadvantage is that you cannot perform any spells while your wand is a sword. The only two wizards who have managed that are Dumbledore and Voldemort," at the sound of the name, a shivering silence overtook the class.

"We'll be learning how to duel with these the next few weeks," Lupin continued, "Before we start on any bladework, however, you need to know how to move. So, now that you've seen your swords," he relaxed himself, gave a flick with his sword, shouted, "_Wandisimo!_" and his wand returned. Everyone else did the same. The lesson was spent going over footwork for swordplay in the hallways, a combination of French épée, sabre, and _La Verdadera Destreza_, which they practised on a pattern laid out on the floor. Though he'd never done any real swordplay before, the footwork came very naturally to Harry and the lesson went by smoothly and enjoyably. They returned to the classroom to collect their things just as the period ended, and wen they went down to lunch they found the four House tables returned and the food laid out.

"Wicked lesson, that was," Ron said through gulps of Pumpkin juice, "Never heard anything about that Blade Spell before, not even in a sports catalogue."

"Yes, but don't you think it was a bit difficult?" Hermione said, and Harry just noticed now how out-of-breath she seemed to be.

"Not quite something you can learn out of books, is it?" he grinned.

"Just like broomsticks," Ron grinned as well, "and that reminds me. Have you talked to Katie about applying for captain yet?"

"No. I should do that – here she comes now. Oi! Katie!" the seventh-year blonde-haired girl whirled around.

"Hi, Harry!" she called, "Have a good summer?"

"Yeah. Listen," he got up and walked over to her, "Are you still planning on trying out for Gryffindor Quidditch Captain?"

"Yeah, I was going to go see McGonagall this Saturday. Why?"

"Because I was sort of – maybe thinking of – "

"Oh," she said, frowning slightly, "Well, I was planning on going right after lunch Saturday. Why don't you come with me and we can talk with her about it?"

"Sure," Harry nodded. Katie walked off.

"Where are you going?" Hermione asked as he gathered his stuff together.

"Muggles," he said.

----

Danny lifted up another fold of the Marauder's Map, showing the caretaker Argus Filch and his cat Mrs. Norris prowling the grounds. He could vaguely hear the sounds of the wizard's wireless filtering through the wall between his room and Tucker's; having given up on finding any music he liked, Tucker was now trying to find out more about Quidditch. Sam was in her room, reading. Dobby had brought up lunch a while ago and Danny was now finishing off some strawberries while examining the map. He saw footsteps approaching their rooms, with the ribbon reading "Harry Potter" by them. He got up, unlocked the door, and opened it, looking out at a surprised Harry.

"Saw you coming," he held out the map, "Come on in."

"Thanks," Harry said, "Our music still not growing on Tucker?"

"Nope. And Sam's been reading all day. How many books did Hermione lend her?"

"No idea," Harry looked at the map, "Looks like Malfoy's telling off a few first-years – probably for nothing," the ribbon carrying Malfoy's name was indeed floating by some smaller ones.

"Hey," Danny said, "I've been meaning to ask you..."

"Yeah?"

"Well...y'know how Dumbledore said that in ghost-mode I might be able to learn magic or improve my powers with magic?" Harry nodded, "Well...would you mind teaching me some spells?" Harry frowned, but not as if he were annoyed with Danny. He seemed to be thinking.

"You sure you want me to teach you?" he finally said, "Wouldn't you rather ask one of the teachers who's in the Order? Or Hermione?"

"The only time I learn from a teacher is when I'm actually part of their class," Danny answered, "And if Hermione's way of teaching things is anything like when Sam gives me extra credit to get my grade up, then her teaching me is probably a bad idea," they both grinned.

"Fine," Harry said, "It'll have to wait until the weekend, but all right."

* * *

**Trevor the Enchanter**: The action is coming. Right now I'm trying to get everything in the story settled and play the two trios off one another. But Vlad and the Death Eaters will start appearing soon enough. That's not a bad idea about Aragog...don't know if I can work it in, though.

**SawCyn-wroteSin**: That's true about Ron in the books, but the Ron in my fic is a mix of the one from the books and the more comedy-relief Ron of the third movie.


	9. First Lesson

Friday passed by without much event; Tucker got his foot caught in a vanishing step while walking under the Invisibility Cloak and McGonagall gave Harry and Hermione quite a bit of homework, but beyond that, not much went by. Friday night Hermione had taken all of her homework up to Sam's room (she needed one of her old books for Transfiguration) and the two poured over every aspect of the subject, so much that it was hard to believe Sam wasn't a wizard herself. Tucker had managed to get a Quidditch game on the wizard's wireless, so he and Ron listened to that. Ron went into long explanations about every manoeuvre and tactic being used, lasting right until the end of the game. After the game Ron tried to pick up any songs by the Weird Sisters, leading to another music debate between them.

"They're using real instruments, for crying out loud!" Danny heard Tucker shout through the wall, "Get with the times, man!"

"Maybe the times for you Muggles, but here, there's nothing wrong with using a tin whistle or a bhodrán!"

"You ever heard the stuff we can crank out on an electric guitar or synthesiser!? Get down with it, yo!" it was almost frightening how much he sounded like Mr. Lancer at that moment. Danny quickly moved away from the wall and over to where he had left the Marauder's Map.

"Stubborn, aren't they?" Harry commented. He had stopped by Danny's room, though still wanting to wait until tomorrow before he taught him any magic.

"Yep," Danny didn't even look up as he moved one fold of the map off to the side.

----

Saturday morning started with the sounds of electric shocks and shouting waking Danny. He slowly climbed out of bed, walking over to the wall between his and Tucker's rooms. The sounds were coming from there. With a yawn, Danny walked through the wall to find Tucker on the floor, going through the wires of his electronics and trying to attach them to the wizard's wireless.

"Tucker, what are you doing?" Danny asked in a half-tired, half-annoyed voice. Tucker jumped back, screaming, and accidentally gave himself a shock with a wire.

"Use the door from now on!" he shouted, "I'm trying..." a knock came at the door; it was Sam, with bags under her eyes and her hair all over the place.

"Care to explain the noise?" she yawned.

"I'm trying something," Tucker said, "Maybe if I hook up my sounds to this thing, the electricity will be turned into magic and I can play some real music on this thing!"

"Tucker, I don't think that's gonna..." Tucker gave himself another shock.

"Darn it! I'll get this to work if it's the last thing I..." another shock.

"It's not gonna work, is it?" Danny said as Tucker continued to work.

"Nope," Sam yawned again, "Well, we won't get any sleep now. Dobby left breakfast by my room today. Hungry?"

"Yeah, let's eat. Need a break, Tuck?" he didn't answer, "Guess not."

----

After a full morning of going over McGonagall's homework, needing Hermione's help on several points, Harry was more than relieved to get down to the Great Hall for lunch. Hermione had brought down the _Daily Prophet_, finishing it off from the morning. There was nothing to suggest any activity by the Death Eaters, and now that everyone had begun settling back into life at Hogwarts, that topic had died down considerably.

"You're lucky you haven't got Binns this year," Ron was saying through bites of his food, "Full essay on Grindelwald and he's as dull as ever. I wish I hadn't passed that on my O.W.L. either."

"Ron!" Hermione snapped.

"And the midgets are always asking where the classes are," he waved his hand over to where a couple of first-years were sitting.

"Don't call them midgets!"

"They're titchy!" Hermione groaned in aggravation but said nothing else. Lunch passed by quickly after that, with everyone heading back outside or to their common rooms.

"Hey! Harry!" Harry looked over. Katie was coming towards them, "Ready to go?"

"Oh – yeah," he grabbed his things, said "See you" to Ron and Hermione, and followed Katie to the Transfiguration classroom, where McGonagall sat going over some papers. She still had her walking stick from the end of last year, but she had been moving much better.

"Yes?" she said as they walked in.

"We wanted to talk to you, Professor," Katie started, "About Quidditch this year."

"Ah, yes. We'll be needing a new captain this year."

"That's what we wanted to ask about. Harry and I – we both wanted to see about being captain."

"Is that so?" McGonagall straightened herself out in her chair, "Well, let's see then. Ms. Bell, you've been on the team your whole time at Hogwarts and have proven yourself very adept at the sport. Potter, you've been one of the finest Seekers I've seen, but I must say – do you think you can handle your temper this year?"

"Is Umbridge coming back to see a match?" he asked lightly. Katie laughed quietly, and McGonagall actually smiled.

"I trust neither of you would have a problem if the other got the position?" they both shook their heads, "Well then – I'll have to appoint Ms. Bell. Sorry, Potter," she had noticed Harry's slight look of disappointment, "I'd been thinking about it over the summer, and she's been vouched for by Ms. Johnson and Ms. Spinnet. Was that all?" Katie nodded, "Off you go then," Katie strolled out of the room, but Harry stayed behind.

"Yes, Potter?" McGonagall asked once Katie had left.

"Yeah. Er – did Dumbledore tell you – the rooms out-of-bounds this year –"

"He did."

"Right. About that – do you have a spare wand?" she stared at him fixedly for a moment, her eyebrows raised. Finally –

"Very well then, Potter," she drew her wand from her robes, said "_Accio, wand_," and an old darkwood wand flew into her other hand.

"Don't get too carried away, Potter," she handed it to him, "Or someone will be bound to notice. There's a more spacey room three doors down the corridor you can use."

"Thanks," he took it, and headed out of the room himself.

----

After trying all morning and giving himself several burns on his hands, Tucker had finally given up on attempting to play any of his music on the wizard's wireless, instead going with Danny to Sam's room for lunch. Ron and Hermione had come up earlier, and the five of them were now sitting around, Hermione and Sam discussing Hermione's organisation S.P.E.W. (Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare), and Ron showing Danny and Tucker some diagrams of Quidditch plays. A knock came at the door; it was Harry.

"Hey," Danny greeted him.

"Ready to try some magic?" Harry handed him McGonagall's old wand.

"Right now?"

"I said this weekend, didn't I?" everyone's attention was now on them. Danny looked at the wand for a moment, grinned, and went ghost.

"Let's do it."

"Right. There's a room down the corridor we can use later, but for now we can practice in here. First, just to make sure this'll work –" he tried to think of a really simple spell, "Try this," he waved his wand and said the word "_Lumos_." A white light formed at the end of his wand, narrow and flashlight-like.

"_Lumos_," Danny repeated, waving his wand. A light appeared at the end of his wand. His light was a bit dimmer and tinted green, but he had done it.

"Awesome!" Danny smiled, and Tucker and Sam looked impressed.

"Good. And to get rid of it – _Nox_," he flicked his wand, and the light vanished. Danny did the same.

"Is the Marauder's Map still in your room?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. I'll go get it," he walked through the walls and came back with the map in his hand.

"Just one other test, or whatever word fits," Harry took the map, tapped it with his wand, and said "Mischief managed." The entire contents of the map vanished, the ink seeming to sink back into the parchment.

"How'd you do that?" Tucker asked. Harry handed the map back to Danny.

"Tap it with your wand and say 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.'" Danny did so, and the map reappeared.

"Okay," Harry grinned, "So far so good. Let's go to that other room now. I think you're ready to try some other spells," he led Danny out the room and down the corridor. Tucker and Ron followed, and after a bit of deciding, Sam and Hermione set down their things and went with them. Three doors down the corridor they found a large, spacey room, completely empty and pretty dark. Tucker grabbed two torches from the corridor and placed them in the room.

"Right," Harry took off his cloak and rolled up his sleeves, "You want to start with rudimentary spells and charms or things that'll help with your powers?"

"The second one," Danny said. He hoped their was some kind of silencing spell; he could use it the next time he ran into Technus or The Box Ghost.

"Thought so. All right – Ron?" Ron snapped to attention, looking a bit nervous, "Can you come over here?" the worry in his look increased, but he pulled out his wand and dragged himself over so he was a few feet across from Harry, as if they were about to have a duel.

"This is pretty basic, you should be able to do it – the Disarming Spell," he aimed his wand at Ron, who closed his eyes, and shouted, "_Expelliarmus!_" a jet of scarlet light shout out of Harry's wand, sending Ron's wand flying and knocking Ron himself back a few steps; he lost his balance on one and fell over.

"Sorry," Harry walked over and helped Ron up, "Well...that's the spell. Don't worry if you can't do it, a lot of people had problems with it last year and we learned it back in our second year. So, you want to try it?" Danny nodded, but he didn't feel too confident now. They learned it in their second year and were still having problems with it three years later?

"Ready?" he vaguely heard Harry say. He stood across from him and raised up his wand.

"_Expelliarmus!_" Danny had expected nothing to happen, or a faint red spark to fall out of the wand; what he did not expect was a swirling green-yellow jet to fire out and knock Harry's wand to the ceiling, hitting with a shower of green and yellow sparks and falling to the floor with a clatter. Harry, Ron, and everyone else looked just as taken aback as he did; Harry did a double-take, looking at Danny in disbelief.

"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed.

"Wow..." Danny stared at his wand, "Guess...guess all my practice with my ghost powers helped?" he laughed, half in awe, half in worry.

"'K," Harry said, still looking shocked, "Looks like you can do that all right. Let's try...Shielding Charms," he walked over to retrieve his wand, "They only work on minor curses, but..."

"I've got a ghost-power like that already," Danny said, "I don't know if it works with magic, though."

"Want to try it out?" Danny nodded, "Right. Get ready," Harry raised his wand, "_Expelliarmus!_" the scarlet light shot of his wand, and Danny waved his hands, forming the thin ectoplasmic shield in front of him. The second the beam hit, both the shield and the spell seemed to be sucked into Danny's wand. Not knowing what else to do, Danny fired the spell back at Harry.

"_Protego!_" the jet of light, now a mix of red and green, came back towards Danny again; this time, he raised a dome-shaped barrier around himself, and the spell just dissolved into it.

"Brilliant," Harry grinned, "You want to keep at it?"

"You bet!" they started again. Ron and Tucker still had their mouths hanging open in shock; Sam and Hermione were smiling.

"Another Harry (Danny)" they said at once.

* * *

Thus, we end the characters stating the parallels between the trios. Still wanting more action? It's coming! 


	10. While the other Survives

Harry had been immensely proud of everyone involved with the D.A. last year, but that feeling was nothing compared to what he felt watching Danny during their weekly sessions on Saturdays. He never imagined that Danny's ghost powers would be so developed, or that they would have lent such a hand in his ability to learn spells. Dumbledore had made it sound like the most Danny could learn was a few simple spells from first year level, yet in under a month, he had completely mastered Disarming, Stunning, the Impediment Curse, _Alohomora_, the Reductor Curse, and _Relashio_. The only thing that seemed off was that no matter what spell Danny used, it was always a swirl of green and yellow, and that was probably because he was half-ghost, not a wizard. Learning the spells seemed to affect his natural powers as well; his energy blasts could now be modified to resemble different curses and jinxes. He'd been showing Harry a lot of his powers and teaching him about them; Harry couldn't do them, but they were interesting and made them even during their practices. The two were near evenly matched; Danny won about as many times as Harry did. It was obvious that being half-ghost, half-muggle prevented Danny from certain spells; he was having trouble with Summoning and Levitation, and when they tried the Patronus charm, the best he could get was a feeble wisp of green smoke. But it was astounding how much he'd managed. Danny was thoroughly enjoying the lessons, and practised on his own whenever he could. For the first time, he was feeling like he had complete, one hundred percent control over his powers.

Sam had never seen Danny this happy, and was spending just as much time watching him as she was reading. She and Hermione had begun looking up new spells, jinxes, and hexes for him to practice with Harry, some of which Harry seemed just as eager to learn. At the same time, she was helping Hermione with S.P.E.W. and learning about magic just for the heck of it. Hermione was only too happy to help; in fact, the only thing they ever disagreed on was the issue of Danny, Sam and Tucker's roaming the school during the day. Even with the Invisibility Cloak and Marauder's Map, Hermione thought it best if they didn't wander around during the day. Sam, though more cautious than Danny or Tucker, thought she was overreacting.

"It's just that it's so crowded during the day," Hermione had said, "Someone could feel you under the Cloak if you run into them, and if you bump into something or someone you could drop the map..."

"What do you think Danny's ghost-powers are for?" Sam countered.

"But he's known as a Hogwarts ghost, he won't he under the Cloak, and it'll look suspicious if he stays floating right in the same spot holding onto you. Why don't you just go out at night? Only Filch and the teachers will be around, they can't see you, and Danny won't get in trouble..." Sam refused to back down, as did Hermione.

Ron and Tucker had finally stopped arguing over whose music was better, both of them growing bored with the subject and Tucker having given up on ever getting his music to play in the school. He'd gone out onto the grounds in the Cloak and tried his CD player by Hagrid's, but that didn't work either. The only progress was that there was now an annoying static sound. Instead, Ron had been teaching him more and more about Quidditch, putting games on the wizard's wireless and telling him about famous players. He had admitted, with some reluctance, that Hermione was close to the famous Bulgarian Seeker Victor Krum. They'd also spent a lot of time watching Harry and Danny, and now argued over which of the two was superior.

Harry was surprised to find himself making as much headway in his classes as Danny was with their lessons. McGonagall was giving them no let-up on homework, but with his schedule so much more open, Harry found himself able to study and get it done faster, and was relying less and less on Hermione for help with almost every subject; and with the exception of History of Magic, Ron was the same. Charms was going well; Flitwick wasn't being easy, but they'd had nothing incredibly difficult bordering on impossible. Now that everyone had been able to ride the unicorns, Hagrid was having the class teach them to do practical things; help lost people, carry things, and the like. They'd been given a fair bit of homework on the magical properties of unicorns, but it wasn't too hard and actually very interesting.

"You're starting to sound like Hermione or Sam," Ron had told him, but he too was enjoying the assignment.

They'd been given little to no homework in Defence Against the Dark Arts, as Lupin continued their work with the Blade Charm. He was constantly stressing on good form and footwork, particularly with _La Verdadera Destreza_. For once, Hermione seemed to be going with the class instead of being ahead of the class. She was a bit upset that she couldn't get a better handle on it, but Harry and Ron couldn't help but feel a bit amused. They knew Hermione wasn't all books and could be very active, but following the patterns of _La Verdadera Destreza_ and regularly practising the other types of footwork seemed a bit harder for her than she expected. Lupin had also started them on bladework. Harry wondered how they were going to practice bladework without hurting each other; maybe there was a spell to dull the blade? It turned out that there was a variation of the Shielding Charm that placed a protective invisible armour on your body that prevented injury from a magical sword. Everyone was eager to get started on this. Like the footwork, it came very naturally to Harry. Ron was doing well with sabre, but his épée was a bit off. Almost everyone was having trouble getting _La Verdadera Destreza_ down right, but it wasn't for lack of trying, and aside from Malfoy and his gang of Slytherins, the entire sixth year class was thoroughly enjoying Lupin's lessons.

Now that the Ministry didn't seem to be tearing open every letter coming in and out of Hogwarts, members of the Order were writing more often, though they still kept any descriptions on what they were doing vague. Tonks was writing to Hermione and Ginny a lot, and Moody had sent Harry a few letters. Fred and George were always sending along jokes and trick cards. And they were sending along mail that was for other people too.

"A letter from my parents?" Danny asked when they showed him, "How'd it get here?"

"Dumbledore arranged it," Hermione said, "Anything sent to the Weasley School of Education goes to the headquarters of the Order, who send it along to here," Danny saw Harry's eyes gleaming at the return address.

"Any reason you're so excited my parents live at Number 5, Privet Drive?" Danny asked. Harry didn't answer. Shrugging, Danny opened the letter.

----

Vernon Dursley was sitting down in his chair, the television on and his mind relaxed. Dudley was off at school, and the boy was at this lot's place until the summer. It was especially good to be rid of him this year, as he and his wife Pentunia had been forced to allow him all the things they were normally adamant he mustn't use all summer. Now, however, everything was perfectly normal and in order, his mind perfectly relaxed. Mrs. Dursley, however, was not so calm. Her beady eyes were narrowed into slits, watching the moving van from behind the blinds. Someone was finally buying Number 5, Privet Drive, and there was always the chance of new neighbours ending up being...like the boy. Their van was certainly unusual; militaristic in design with glowing green parts.

"Vernon, come look!" she whispered. The neighbours were coming out. The girl looked normal enough, but her father was a giant of a man in an orange and black jump suit; his wife had similar clothes, turquoise and black, with a hood and goggles. Rather than use boxes like a normal family, all their things were kept in silver containers with green designs, just like their car. 

"Careful with those!" the man shouted. Mr. Dursley scowled.

"Yanks," he hissed, "Taking over the planet, they are."

"And those clothes!" Mrs. Dursley scoffed, "No decency!" the man and his wife were now looking around the neighbourhood.

"Not a bad spot," the man said, "Though I wish we could've found a place more likely to have some ghosts!" Mr. and Mrs. Dursley pulled back from the window, their eyes wide with horror. They'd never asked Harry anything about his school, but with all the other nonsense that went on there, surely there had to be something dealing with ghosts. What if this had to do with – _his _lot?

"Jack," they vaguely heard the man's wife say, "Before we start on that I think we should get to know the neighbours. We're living here until Danny gets back from school."

"True. HOWDY, NEIGHBOURS!" Jack screamed at the top of his lungs, sending Mr. and Mrs. Dursley retreating further away from the window, "ANYONE STILL AT HOME? NOT AT WORK? Ah well, that's a chore for another day –"

"Jack, we are doing this properly," a minute later, the doorbell to Number 4 rang throughout the house. Having no choice, Mr. Dursley took in a deep breath and opened the door, his wife peering out from behind him.

"Howdy, neighbour!" Jack shouted. Mr. Dursley mumbled something like "Good morning," under his breath before speaking fully.

"I am Vernon Dursley," he said with the air of a man trying to warn a possible enemy who he was messing with, "and this is my wife, Petunia," he motioned to Mrs. Dursley, still behind him.

"Glad t' know you," Jack grabbed Mr. Dursley's hand, shaking it furiously, "I'm Jack Fenton, Ghost Hunter Extraordinare! My wife, Maddie," he motioned to her, and she gave a little wave, "and this," he stepped aside; the girl had been hiding behind him, holding her hand in her head in shame, "is my daughter Jasmine."

"Call me Jazz," she muttered. Jack went on.

"We'll only be here for a year while my son Danny and his friends try out a new school, but in the meantime, I can probably find some ghosts in this country!"

"Yes. These ghosts," Mr. Dursley tried not to sound too angry, "You don't hunt anything else, do you – wizards, perhaps?" Jack just stared at him for a moment, then broke out into hysterical laughter. He fell on the ground and rolled around on their front lawn and it was a good few minutes before he finally started to relax himself.

"Wizards!" he wiped a tear from his eye, "Ghost can be explained with science! But wizards – " he started laughing again, and Jazz put her other hand up to her head, now covering her face completely. Though a bit more relaxed now, the Dursleys were far from satisfied; neighbours like this – it was almost as bad as having the boy back at home –

"Hey," Jack's tone suddenly turned serious, "Hey! Careful with that!" the movers had just picked up a container that was completely covered in yellow caution tape, and they seemed to be having some trouble with it.

"Careful, I said! If you drop that thing..." the weight was too much; they dropped it. Red laser fire went everywhere. One beam came within less than an inch of burning of Mr. Dursley's moustache; another flew threw the window and blew up a bedroom in the Dursley's home.

"_My little Diddykins's room!_" Mrs. Dursley shrieked, running up the stairs as fast as she could. Mr. Dursley just stared out in shock, blowing on his moustache in case anything had caught fire.

"Sorry!" Jack called after Mrs. Dursley, "It's a Multi-Ghost Eradicator. It – CAREFUL WITH THAT ONE TOO!" Jack shouted at the movers. This container was shaking extremely violently, so much that they could barely get a grip on it. This one fell to the ground too, and fifty linked sausages, snapping and biting furiously, flew straight at Mr. Dursley, who let out a yell of horror and charged inside.

"Fall back, boys!" Jack called after the flying dogs, "He's clean!" the sausages retreated, forming a snapping defensive circle around Jack.

"And...MOVE IN!" they flew into the house, picking up their container as they went. Jack and Maddie ran in after them, each grabbing something. Jazz looked into the Dursley's now empty doorway.

"Sorry!" she called. Getting no answer, she marched over to the house, muttering, "I hope Danny's having fun."

----

From his mom's letter, Danny's family seemed to be doing well at Privet Drive. The only thing odd were their neighbours; they seemed to be against anything that didn't fit their idea of normal, treating it like a hideous thing that must be avoided at all costs.

"They sound a lot like your aunt and uncle," Tucker said to Harry, who was still grinning. Then it hit Danny.

"Wait," he said, "Don't tell me...my parents moved by your...they're living...right next to each other?" Harry's grin grew even wider, and as it sunk in, all six of them started laughing.

A month into the school year, there still had been no real reports on Death Eater activity. Even the rumours and stories in magazines like _The Quibbler _seemed to be dying down. Saturday changed all that.

Breakfast started normally enough. As he was thought to be a school ghost, Danny was allowed to come with them to breakfast, though as wizards' ghosts couldn't eat, he wasn't supposed to either. This proved rather difficult as he watched all the food being passed around.

"You've got breakfast upstairs," Hermione reminded him.

"Yeah, but it's not down here and I'm hungry," she ignored him. The owls came in, dropping off Hermione's Daily Prophet. She had barely unfolded it when she dropped it, throwing her hands over her mouth and her eyes looking fearful.

"What?" Harry asked, his eyes darting down to the _Prophet_. He too was schocked at the headlines.

**DEATH EATERS ESCAPE FROM AZKABAN **

**BLACK CONFIRMED DEAD**

The Ministry of Magic announced late last night that, of the ten Death Eaters caught last year in the Department of Mysteries, the remaining seven have escaped from Azkaban prison.

Speaking to reporters in his private office, an irritble Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic, confirmed that Rodolphus, Crabbe, Rabastan, Jugson, Rookwood, Dolohov, and Mulciber, once thought to be respected citizens, have all managed to escape, killing two Aurors and severely injuring three more in the effort. The Aurors have taken over as the Azkaban guards since the mass revolt of the dementors, who are now in the employ of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

Since the revolt of the dementors, Azkaban has been subjected to much bewitching and enchanting, in hope of providing a similar level of security. To date, however, the plan has faltered on more than one occasion before now.

"We again find ourselves caught off-guard by the Death Eaters," said Fudge last night, "It was early this summer, just after his capture, when Lucius Malfoy escaped. Avery and Walden Macnair soon followed. It has been difficult to put out a proper search for them, as many of our Aurors are needed to guard the fortress. Nor do we believe that Malfoy and the others couldn't have had anything to do with aiding in their fellows' escape." Aurors on guard that night, however, reported sightings of what appeared to be "strange, blue ghosts." One in particular seemed to draw attention, a dangerous, wild-looking thing that appeared to be made of some kind of armour.

Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, has offered the opinion that these creatures are another variety of ghost, not well-known among the magical population. When asked his views on the theory, Fudge quickly changed the subject.

The Muggle Prime Minister has been informed of the dangerous nature of these criminals, with assurances that the true identity of these criminals will not be revealed. Among other crimes, the Death Eaters often hunted Muggles for sport and killed many members of the wizarding community who were Muggle-born.

Perhaps the only consolation is the confirmation that the infamous Sirius Black, one of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's strongest supporters, is finally dead. This was discovered some time ago by the Unspeakables in the Department of Mysteries; exactly how is yet unknown.

Harry stared at the final paragraph of the article in disbelief. The Death Eaters were loose, Fudge still refused to listen to Dumbledore...and they all still believed that the worst of them was _Sirus_?

"Harry, pass the jam," he vaguely heard Seamus's voice, but did nothing, "Harry? _Harry?_ What's wrong with...the Death Eaters escaped!?" Seamus's shout brought several people over, crowding around Hermione to get a look at the article.

"They killed two Aurors?" "Why won't Fudge listen?" "Wasn't Macnair here a few years ago?" "Two Aurors?" comments floated around the table, more people still trying to get in and look at the article. Harry's eyes finally moved away from the paragraph; Draco Malfoy had swaggered over, looking more pleased than he ever had before.

"Bit of shock there, isn't it, Potter?" he sneered, "Father _was_ the first one out. Made the headlines all over, and not just in the _Prophet_. Shame they're still _dogging_ after the wrong footsteps," Harry glared at Malfoy, hating him more than ever. People were still clammoring around them. Up at the High Table, Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape were all engaged in a quiet conversation, looking extremely grave.

"How many does he have now?" Harry made out from among the crowd near him.

"At least he doesn't have Black anymore," Seamus said comfortingly. That was too much. Harry made to get up and tell them off, but Hermione pulled him back down into his chair.

"Let go," he hissed at her.

"Harry, we _can't_," Hermione said sadly, "I don't like it either, but the Order's still in secret and there's still no evidence that Sirus was..."

"_Fine_," Harry yanked his robes free, pushed his way through the crowd, and headed upstairs. Danny read over the article himself. A ghost in it be?

"I'll be right back," he whispered to Hermione, and, phasing through the crowd, went after Harry.

----

He found him in the Gryffindor common room, gripping his wand and shaking at trying to control his anger. He was actually rather frightening.

"That ghost they mentioned," Danny said after a brief hesitation, "I think that might've been Skulker."

"Really?" Harry answered in cool, uncaring voice that didn't sound like his own. Danny didn't know if it was wise to continue or not, but he had to ask...

"What's the deal with that Sirius Black guy?" Harry just stared into the fireplace for a moment, though he did stop shaking. Finally he turned to face Danny.

"He was my godfather," he said quietly. Danny could see pain in his eyes, "He was accused of handing my parents over to Voldemort and murdering thirteen people with one curse. But he was innocent. That was done by a Death Eater spy, Wormtail, a friend from Hogwarts. He was sent to Azkaban without a trial. In my third year, he managed to escape, and revealed Wormtail. But he got away, and Sirius had to run for it. We stayed in touch over the summer. He was like a brother and a father. Last year, in the Department of Mysteries...there was a fight with the Death Eaters and he..." Harry couldn't go on. He turned back to the fireplace quickly. Danny stood there, completely in shock. He'd been put through plenty by his enemies; Spectra's powers were rival to those of the dementors. He'd thought that Voldemort sounded worse than Vlad, but this drove it in to him in a way he couldn't explain. A single boy had lost his mom, dad, and the person who seemed to be the closest to a parent he'd ever had at the hands of this guy. That sounded like less than the tip of the iceberg for casualties.

"Voldemort wanted a prophecy from inside the Department of Mysteries," he heard Harry say, "It was about him and me. He tricked me into getting it for him, but it was smashed."

"What'd it say?" Harry gulped. He still hadn't told anyone about the prophecy, not even Ron and Hermione. They had never even asked about it. But like before, there was something about Danny that made it less difficult to talk about things.

"It said that I'm the one who can defeat Voldemort. And it said '_Neither can live...while the other survives_,'" cold, dead silence fell after that. Neither of them moved, Harry still staring into the fireplace and Danny's eyes wide.

----

"You're sure they arrive at noon?" Lucius Malfoy asked. In the village Grimm, away from the eyes of the Ministry, the army of Lord Voldemort had settled for now. Giants, dementors, and newly recruited Death Eaters went about, the giants camped off away from the town and the dementors flying high above. There was a fourth party to these creatures; ghosts from The Ghost-Zone, recruited by Vlad to join Voldemort's army. Vlad and Lucius were standing at the edge of town, waiting.

"Skulker has his problems, but for things like this I trust him with my life," Vlad said simply, "He'll be here."

"For your sake I hope so," Malfoy looked up at the sky, "You should be very grateful to be alive after the dementor attack went awry."

"I didn't know Jack would move into The Leaky Cauldron," Vlad replied, now a bit tense, "I suspected he'd snoop around, of course, and I hoped Danny would find the wizarding world to get a taste of the future, but I thought they'd stay in the hotel they'd booked. I merely told the dementors who to find."

"The Dark Lord operates in secret. On your orders the dementors appeared outside The Leaky Cauldron, and it was again Harry Potter who stood in their way. I managed to convince the Dark Lord that the fault lay with the dementors. I convinced him that they sensed the wizards and gathered near the pub. Dementors can make up their minds for themselves, you know. I am skilled enough at Occlumency to hide our falsehood, and he accepted the story. Haven't you noticed that there are three less dementors around?" ignoring that, Vlad looked up.

"There they are," he grinned. A giant, flying, ectoplasmic-based hunting jeep flew down, seven Death Eaters in the back and the Skulker in the front. Several ghosts flew over, helping the tired wizards into the town.

"Any trouble?" Vlad asked as Skulker leapt out of the jeep.

"None," the ghost-hunter said.

"And...the other thing you were to find out?" Skulker grinned.

"It was difficult. But I, Skulker, always..." something on his arm beeped. He threw a hand over his face.

"Noooooo..." he moaned, "Why now?" he looked at the device, "I have to fly back to Amity, stare at a gorilla...**_AGAIN!_**" his jet-pack opened, and he flew off.

"Don't ask," Vlad said quickly, seeing Malfoy's expression.

"Welcome," they heard a cold voice behind them adressing the newly returned Death Eaters, "Welcome home, my family, back into the service of Lord Voldemort," as the seven were led away into different buildings, Voldemort made his way over to Vlad and Malfoy.

"Well?" he asked Vlad.

"Skulker's armour has a minor flaw," Vlad said, "But he has the information and will be back within an hours' time to reveal it."

"Excellent. Well done, Vlad," Voldemort turned away, heading to the building he kept as his private quarters.


	11. New Chaser

The news of the escaped Death Eaters and Sirius Black's death swept through the school like wildfire, becoming the sole topic of conversation in the corridors. Teachers and students alike conversed in urgent whispers, discussing everything from where the Death Eaters could be to Fudge's ignorance. Much to Harry's, Ron's, and Hermione's indignation, almost everyone was relieved about Sirius's death, chatting about as much as they did everything else. Rumours were flying on the true nature of their escape; many thought Dumbledore was to be trusted about the ghosts, but others bought the Ministry's theory on aid from Lucius Malfoy. Draco Malfoy was beside himself with glee, abusing his prefect powers more than ever and strutting about the school as if it was his private property. Danny didn't think it was possible for any kid to be worse than Dash, but watching as he roamed the school with the other ghosts, Malfoy definitely was.

With permission from Harry, Danny told Sam and Tucker about Sirius Black and the battle in the Department of Mysteries. He left out the prophecy; as Harry had seemed reluctant to tell him, he didn't think he should repeat it to anyone just yet. Sam had heard about Sirius from Hermione, but was still shocked all the same.

"This Fudge guy's brainless," Tucker said, "And you guys complain I don't listen!"

Danny and Harry's sparring sessions continued. Harry rarely spoke anything other than the incantations anymore, but there seemed to be far more intensity in his attacks. It was as if he was using their lessons as a vent for all his frustration at everyone's discussions about Sirius. Danny was starting to find it difficult to defend himself and get in his own attacks, but he too was working harder than before. He couldn't be sure how Skulker had gotten involved with the Death Eaters, but he had his suspicions, and trying to get them to make sense was pretty frustrating itself. Along with their duelling, Tucker's and Ron's debates on who among Danny and Harry was superior intensified.

Everyone had doubled their efforts in Defence Against the Dark Arts, where they were still working on the Blade Charm. Harry was still the only one who had mastered _La Verdadera Destreza_, but sabre had become as easy as reading for most. Ron and Seamus were beyond question the best at épée, beating everyone in practice.

"Well done!" Lupin exclaimed after a day of sabre matches, "Well done, indeed! Ten points to Gryffindor for everyone! I must tell you, this is by far the best sixth year class I have! Now, I've talked with Dumbledore about the Duelling club, and with help from Professor Flitwick, I've set it up. However," and at this point he turned serious, almost reluctant, "The, er – full moon is soon, and I will be – in disposed next week and as such the first meeting will be postponed," there was a great deal of disappointment spread among the class, "Your lessons will be taken by Professor Snape –" shouts of objection followed this, "– but depending on how things work out, the _real_ Alastor Moody may take over after this next lesson on the days where I...well, you know what I mean," everyone started to relax after hearing this.

"So close to a Snape-free year," Ron sighed as they filed out of the classroom.

"He hasn't changed at all this year," Hermione said.

"Really? With me out of his class I thought he'd throw a celebration," Harry said, "You're sure there's no change?"

"Well...he does seem a – a bit happier," the last part she told them extremely fast. Harry said nothing in reply.

----

"These Quidditch games are pretty cool," Tucker said as he turned off the wizard's wireless, "And I don't even need Ron to tell me what eveyone's doing anymore!" they were all in Tucker's room.

"The Quidditch season for the school's coming up soon," Danny said, "Harry, Ron, and Ginny have practice and try-outs tonight, they said we could come."

"Danny, you hate sports," Sam said from over her latest book, _The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection_.

"I hate the sports in our world," Danny said, "This one sounds cool. Why don't you come with us? I know you hate sports too, but this isn't any sport."

"Sounds a lot like soccer," she turned the page nonchalantly.

"Come on! Technically it's not condoning anything popular, since we're not wizards and this isn't our to normal soccer it does sound kind of exciting. All right, I'll go."

"Great," Danny smiled, "That's all three of us."

"Yeah. I wish my camera would work, though. Ron's supposed to be kind of lame, and pics of missed goals would make great blackmail and party material."

----

"Everyone here?" Katie yelled. The sun was slowly sinking below the hills and the air was a bit chilly, but it was still fair conditions for Quidditch practice. The Gryffindor team was standing in the middle of the field, Danny watching from the stadium and Sam and Tucker under the Cloak.

"Im tired of wearing this thing," Tucker mutterd, "I wish I could just go invisible!"

"You're crushing my foot," Sam said dryly.

"Well, nice to see everyone back," they heard Katie say, "With that Umbridge woman gone we've got Harry back, and Ginny's filling in one of the empty Chaser spots, so we'll only need one more to get a full team. Ron, if you'd go and get everyone," Ron set down his broom and ran off to the locker rooms. Several people came out onto the field, including Seamus Finnigan.

"Hey, Harry!" he called; Harry waved back, interested. Seamus had described his antics on a broom in vivid detail their first year, but this would be the first time he'd actually see him flying.

"This everyone?" Katie asked, a bit disappointed; there were only five people; "Well, let's get started. First up!"

The try-outs went by fairly well. The people trying out took turns practicing with the entire team. It felt wonderful to be back on his Firebolt again after his ban last year, and the lack of practice during that time had done nothing to diminish his abilities. Ginny had been pretty good as Seeker, but Harry was astonished at her Chasing ability. She outflew everyone who tried out and gave Katie a run for her money. Fred and George's replacements, Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper, definitely made things go differently; twice they'd almost whacked Harry in the head on accident while trying to hit a Bludger, Sloper almost crushed Ginny's leg, and Kirke knocked one Bludger right towards where Danny and the others were watching; Danny just barely phased himself and the others through the Bludger without arousing suspicion. Ron was still having trouble Keeping, though he had improved somewhat from last year.

"Where's the fantastic screw-ups!?" Tucker said a bit too loudly.

"Shut it," Sam and Danny both muttered.

Of the five who tried out for the position of third Chaser, Harry thought Seamus did the best. His broom was a bit old, but he was extremely fast and could handle the Quaffle well. Fourth year Thomas Ziegler was good at capturing the Quaffle, but had a hard time throwing and controlling his broom. The two third years weren't that good, and the seventh year was terrible, crashing into Kirke three times and missing the goal by several feet everytime he threw the ball.

"Now this guy I could get good blackmail on," Tucker commented.

After the sun was almost completely gone and Madam Hooch came out demanding that they come inside at once, the team flew back down to the ground. Seamus was quickly announced the new Chaser, and as the team led him back up to the Gryffindor common room, the four slightly disappointed Gryffindors behind them, Harry felt as if all the frustrations caused by the _Prophet's _article had fallen away. After the team had cleared out, Danny, Sam and Tucker made their way back to their rooms.

"Didn't we say that was gonna be great?" Danny said. He'd found it one of the most exciting things he'd ever watched.

"It was alright," Sam shrugged, pulling the Cloak off herself and Tucker as they came into Danny's room, "Better than watching Dash get frightened by your ghost-dog."

"That was sweet!" Tucker exclaimed, "I can't wait for their first game! Who're they against?"

"Ravenclaw. It's on the..." Danny fell silent, and suddenly very serious.

"What?" Sam asked him. He took the Marauder's Map from off the dresser and looked over it. By this time of night the students weren't allowed to roam the corridors at night, prefects aside. The Gryffindor team was making their way back to their common room, but down a few levels, towards one of the dungeons, was a ribbon labelled "Draco Malfoy," all alone.

"What's he up to?" Danny murmered to himself.

"He's a prefect, isn't he?" Sam said.

"He's probably trying to get the Gryffindor team in trouble," Tucker guessed.

"Then why's he going to a dungeon?" no one could answer that.


	12. Down in the Dungeons

"You're sure it was Malfoy?" Ron asked seriously. It was the Thursday after the try-outs for the Gryffindor team. Danny had been a bit reluctant to tell Harry and the others about it. Malfoy could've just been looking for some first year to abuse, and he didn't want to annoy them with anything stupid. But he kept watching the Marauder's Map every night, and when he saw Malfoy sneaking around the same dungeon twice, without another soul around, he thought he'd better say something. Harry and Ron had used their free hour before Defence Against the Dark Arts to come up, and were now with Danny, Sam and Tucker in Danny's room.

"I'm sure," Danny replied, unfolding the Map, "And he's always going by this dungeon," he pointed it out.

"That one's off-limits to students," Ron said, a strange grin on his face, "Oh, I'd love to get Malfoy for something. We'll see if he can hold onto his prefect badge _this_ year –"

"Do you even know what's in there?" Sam interrupted, wiping some of the excitement off Ron's face.

"Do you?" he countered.

"I know it's one of three dungeons off-limits to students and used to be used by Rowena Ravenclaw," she threw _Hogwarts, A History_ at him; he let it graze his shoulder as he stared at her in disbelief.

"A month!" he turned to Harry, "Just over a month since she learned about our world and she's already a walking encyclopaedia about everything! She can't even do magic!"

"Why's it off-limits?" Harry asked, ignoring Ron.

"I'll bet there's some Dark Magic hidden in there," Ron immediately jumped to a conclusion that would warrant Malfoy's being expelled.

"Maybe he's got a bunch of magic cameras to spy on people to try and frame 'em," Tucker said.

"That stuff doesn't work in Hogwarts," Ron argued.

"Magic ones could!"

"We would've seen them!"

"He could make them invisible!"

"Sixth years haven't started on Disillusionment Charms yet!"

"Ravenclaw didn't use Dark Magic and he couldn't have set all those cameras up without notice," Sam said dryly. Now both Tucker and Ron turned to her, half-shocked, half-angry.

"Do_ you _know what's in there?" they said together.

"No."

"So we could be right!" they declared. But Danny took Sam's word for it, and, knowing how much time she'd spent reading with Hermione, so did Harry.

"Can I have my cloak back?" Harry asked as Ron and Tucker continued to argue with Sam.

"Why?"

"You want to check out the dungeon?" Danny caught on.

"When'll you be here?"

"About midnight," they heard a bell ring.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts," Ron grabbed his bags, still looking a bit flustered, "With Snape teaching today, I'd rather skip it."

----

"And they're sure it was Draco?" Hermione whispered. Snape had not arrived yet, and Harry and Ron had taken the opportunity to tell her what Danny saw.

"We're going down to the dungeon tonight," Harry said; he had gotten the Invisibility Cloak back and now had it in his bag along with his books, parchment, and quill.

"Couldn't Danny just go down there on his own anytime? I mean, everyone thinks he's a school ghost, there's no rule against him going down to the dungeons..."

"You worry too much," Ron said. As he did, Snape flung the doors open, marching up towards the desk. Harry felt himself burning as he turned around to face the class. He had not changed at all; he still wore the same black robes, still had the same, greasy hair, and gave Harry the same look of loathing he always had.

"It seems that Professor Lupin has been having you all go through the Blade Charm in anticipation for his little Duelling Club. Very unwise. Very unwise indeed," the already unhappy class grew even more unnerved, "to think that there will be nothing but bladework. As he should have told you, it is a rarity for the Blade Charm to be used at all anymore. Come with me," he strode back down through the seats and down towards the Great Hall. With great reluctance and loathing, the class followed. A new stage, running the full length of the room and wider, was in the centre. Harry saw why it had been widened; it needed to fit in the diameter of the circle of _La Verdadera Destreza_.

"You will now witness what you shall truly be up against in Lupin's little club," Snape seemed to fly like a bat onto the stage. "I shall put on a demonstration with one of you. Who will it be?" Harry thought he knew the answer already. Snape's eyes fixed on his.

"Potter," he said with a twisted smile, "Come up here," Harry said nothing. Keeping his eyes locked on Snape's he climbed up onto the stage.

"You should know the formalities of duelling by now, Potter," Snape drew out his wand, "I see no point in repeating them," Harry yanked his own wand from his robes. They barely inclined their heads, and quickly assumed the combative position.

"If at any point one of should choose to use the Blade Charm, the other must do the same, and it shall not change until the person who originally performed the Charm ends it. Finnigan, count," Snape hissed. Seamus gulped and started.

"One...two...three –"

But Snape had already started on "two:" a flash of scarlet light flew out of his wand, and Harry was just barely able to conjure a Shielding Charm in time.

"_Impedimenta!_" Harry countered, Snape raised his own Charm to defend and shot a Stunning Spell at Harry.

"_Protego!_" the spell fired back at Snape, who ducked low to the ground to avoid it.

"_Expelliarmus!_" they shouted in unison; the spells collided with each other in mid-air, letting off an orange-red flash and knocking them both back to the edge of the stage.

"_Tarantallegra!_" Snape bellowed, looking enraged.

"_Protego!_"

"_Sabreus!_" Snape's wand became a frightening-looking small sword, the guard and grip black and the blade a dark steel. Harry performed the Shielding Charm for defence against the blades and conjured his own sword. Snape came down on him like a hawk, swinging his sword around like a madman. Harry was barely able to parry, and forcing Snape into a retreat was impossible. Snape could see this, and showed no signs of going back to wands anytime soon. Harry saw one way to force his hand. He managed a good parry, retreated a bit, and fell into the _La Verdadera Destreza_ on guard stance. Snape sneered and did the same. They stepped along the patterns of the style's circle, not taking their eyes off the others blade. Dead silence settled over the room, the class holding its breath. Snape made one step too deep, and Harry noticed. His blade shot out; Snape leapt out of the circle, stumbling and falling flat on his back.

"_Wandisimo!_" he cried the moment he got back on his feet. Harry removed the blade shields and did the same. For a brief moment everything was still.

"_Expelliarmus!_" Snape shouted.

"_Protego! Rictusempra!_" the jet of silver sped towards Snape, too fast for him to counter. Snape began cackling uncontrollably, but did not attempt to counter Harry's attack. He pointed his wand at himself, wheezed, "_Finite!_" and settled back, a death glare in his eye.

"_Relashio!_" thousands of fiery red sparks shout out Snape's wand. Harry, not able to retreat without falling off the stage, dived forward. His robes caught flame; he quickly tossed them off, Dean stomping on the fire.

"Impressive, Potter," Snape hissed, throwing his own robe aside as Harry tore off his tie and rolled up his sleeves, "Perhaps Gryffindor did earn three or four of the points Lupin has been throwing around this class," they raised their wands again.

"_Stupefy!_" "_Impedimenta!_" they went at the same time. Harry dropped to his knees, the spell flying over his head; Snape was hit square in the chest, falling back.

"_Expelliarmus!_" he whirled to his feet.

"_Protego!_"

"_Serpensortia!_" a long black snake shot out of the end of Snape's wand, raising itself up to strike.

"_Reducto!_" Harry sent the snake flying back in Snape's direction, who waved his wand. The snake vanished in a puff of black smoke.

"_Stupefy!_" Harry seized his opportunity; the Stunner made a direct hit, and Snape fell on the stage, unconscious. The class looked on in shock for a moment, then broke into applause.

"_Ennervate_," Harry said through gasps of breath; Snape dragged himself to his feet, cold, dead fury covering every inch of his face.

"Five points from Gryffindor," he hissed, ending the cheering of the class, "You do not ignore the rules of right of way, Potter. We will return to the classroom," he turned to face the class, whose looks of fury rivalled his own, "You will spend your time reading on curses and countercurses," he jumped down from the stage, retrieved his robes, and led the class upstairs.

"You ignored the rules of right of way?" Ron stared in shock and fury after Snape, "The bloody hell with that! You _had_ right of way! He never countered!"

"That was really unfair," Hermione agreed, "Five points for winning!" Harry, however, didn't care if Snape had taken fifty points. The fact remained that he, Harry had defeated him in a duel; a mock duel for demonstration, but a duel nonetheless. With this knowledge of always having this one over Snape, he couldn't help but feel pleased.

----

Danny paced the room, occasionally looking up at the clock or looking over the Marauder's Map. It was a quarter to midnight. Tucker had thought of coming with him and Harry, but he turned in early and trying to wake him up was like trying to teach a rock to talk. Sam didn't think it was a good idea, saying Danny didn't know enough about magic and the kinds of enchantments that could be placed outdoors. Danny thought Ron had a point; Sam knew a bit too much about the wizarding world too soon.

"Five 'til," Danny muttered to himself, reading the clock. He looked down at the Map; the ribbon labelled "Harry Potter" had just left the Gryffindor common room, everyone else in bed. Danny set the Map down, went ghost, and dug his wand out of his dresser. Soon after, a light knock came at the door.

"Ready?" Harry pulled back the Invisibility Cloak so Danny could see his face.

"Let's go," he grabbed the Map they headed down the corridor.

"Lumos," they said together; their wands lit up, Danny's now as bright as Harry's, though still tinted green.

"Which of the dungeons was it again?" Harry whispered as they headed down the stairs.

"This one," rhe ribbon labelled "Argus Filch" was sneaking around it.

"Damn!" Harry cursed. Permission or not, Filch would likely have something to say about Danny going into the dungeon, and Harry would also need to get past him.

"Wait," ahead of them was Peeves. They looked up and saw the poltergeist stop in front of them, looking nervous.

"Danny boy!" he smiled unconvincingly, "All is well, I hope?"

"Yeah..." Danny eyed the Map again, "Hey, I'm doing some exploring, but Filch is by the place I was going to. You think you could get him away for a while?"

"Of course, young Danny!" Peeves suddenly looked excited, "Of course!" cackling lightly, he flew off down the stairs.

"You can control Peeves?" Harry asked, astonished. Danny smirked.

"Blasted him once in the hallway, he's been a big chicken ever since."

"Where have you been the past six years?" laughing quietly, they continued down the stairs. Once and a while the staircases moved, and a painting shouted for them to put their wands out so they could go back to sleep, but no one else came along ahead of them. After a few minutes, they reached the floor where the entrance to the dungeon was.

"Anyone up ahead?" Danny checked the Map. The ribbon "Severus Snape" was following the footsteps up and towards the corner ahead of them.

"Wipe the map!" Danny hissed.

"Mischief managed," Danny said quickly, giving the Map to Harry, "_Nox_," Harry put out his own wand. A minute later Severus Snape's wand lit up, and he flew over to Danny like a large and menacing bat, looking extremely ill-tempered.

"Well, well," he hissed, "Our newest ghost out and about the castle at night. With the ability to hold a wand," his eyes darted down to Danny's right hand, "Very curious."

"Dumbledore never said I couldn't walk around," Danny said, moving the wand behind his back. Snape's lips twisted into a nasty smile. There was something creepy about him.

"Indeed. But you'll forgive me; I must have misheard. I was so sure though that there were two voices ahead of me. Surely you couldn't have been both. Is there anyone else with you? Muggles, perhaps?" Danny felt a drop of sweat trickle down the side of his face. Did he know?

"Perhaps no one has told you, ghost child, but I am a member of the Order of the Phoenix."

"Huh? Oh!" Danny sighed, "For a second there, I..."

"But I did not think that bringing you and your little friends here was a wise choice," Snape fixed a piercing stare on Danny, "Not a wise choice at all. Three Muggles, one of whom is half ghost, in an all-wizard school. Does that sound entirely right to you?" Danny didn't answer, but stared determinedly back. Snape's smile grew wider.

"Be warned, ghost boy. Dumbledore's permission or not, it is not...prudent for Muggles to roam these corridors alone. Even those with the powers of a ghost," Snape swept passed him, flicking his wand out when a painting shouted at him. Danny stared after him for a moment. He didn't seem like someone who'd be in the Order.

"_Lumos_," the light on his wand came back, "Harry? You still there?" a hand, seemingly from nowhere, handed him the Map.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," the contents sprang back up from the parchment, "Let's get going," they continued until they arrived at the locked black door.

"_Alohomora_," Harry stretched his wand out from under the Cloak; nothing happened.

"It's locked."

"Then how could Malfoy get in? He can't have the key. Not if Ravenclaw used this dungeon."

"We don't need to open the lock," Danny felt around a bit, grabbed Harry's shoulder, and phased them through the door. Inside was a dark, black hallway, branching off into two passageways. An eerie green glow seemed to seep out of where the curved walls met the damp floor; this was the only light source. The air seemed as cold as when a dementor drew near.

"Not much, is it?" Danny laughed, but didn't feel very happy. They made their way over to where the hallway split into the passageways.

"Let's split up," Harry threw off his cloak, "I'll head right, you head left. If you find anything, come back here. If I'm not back in five minutes, come after me. I'll do the same."

"Right," Danny turned around; the green glow had vanished down the left passageway, leaving his wand as the only light, "_Lumos Maxima_'s how you make this light brighter, right?" but Harry was already gone.

----

Unlike the left passage, the right still held the green glow from the floor. Somehow, though, this made the place seem even less present than if there had been no light. Harry could hear dripping water around him, and twice stepped in rather deep pools of water. There was no sign of anything up ahead; in fact, it was a dead end. Harry looked at the wall in front of him; maybe it was a barrier like in Diagon Alley. He tapped on a few bricks with his wand; the last one he hit (he couldn't tell which, as the glare from his _Lumos _spell blurred his eyes), the bricks pulled back, revealing a completely dark, black chamber.

"_Lumos Maxima_," the light at the end of his wand became significantly brighter. He went on, finding a spiral staircase right ahead. As he headed up, the walls and floor seemed to become less and less damp and decaying. He soon found himself in a wooden room filled with cleaning supplies. Something meowed down by his feet. Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, was staring up at him. Before he could stop her, she took off towards the exit on the other side of the room, where Harry could here a wheezy voice shouting furiously.

"_You just wait, Peeves! I'll have you this time, I'll have you!_" Harry stood as if rooted to the spot, too nervous to move.

"What is it, my sweet?" he heard Filch ask Mrs. Norris, "Is there someone in there?" snapping to his senses, Harry moved back, almost tripping over to the stairs. When Filch's long shadow appeared coming in from the exit, he whirled around, almost flying down the stairs and taking off down the passage. He could hear a yell from behind him and the rusty handle of Filch's lantern creaking as he fell over a pool and picked himself up again. When he reached the main hall he grabbed at his cloak and took off down the left passage.

----

Danny forced down a yawn as he continued on; there were no twists and turns to this passage, just a straight path that held nothing. There seemed to be no sign of an end either.

"Hope Harry's having fun," he muttered. He slipped on some water and fell forward, crashing into a darkwood door with a rusted old handle.

"Finally," Danny said, rubbing his head, "Wonder what's in here?" before he could phase through the door, however, he heard someone running towards him. Harry looked overcome with panic, and Danny could hear another set of footsteps behind him. He went invisible and threw himself against the wall; Harry just pulled his cloak around himself and went up against the opposite wall. Wheezing like a madman and looking overcome with rage, the caretaker Argus Filch came to a halt just outside the door.

"Come out!" he screamed, "I know you're there!" he pounded on the door, "Whoever you are, I have you! You won't get away this time! I'll stand out here all night if I have to! You'll need to come out sooner or later!" Danny motioned with his eyes down the passageway, hoping Harry noticed. He lifted himself off the ground and floated back down the passage, not touching back down until he was by the dungeon door. A few minutes later, Harry drew back the Cloak so Danny could see his face, and they phased through the door.


	13. In the Forest

"You two actually went through with it?" Hermione screamed, "Have you gone mad? There was nowhere to run from Filch in that chamber, he wouldn't care about Danny's being a ghost and that wouldn't explain –"

"Shut up and let them get to the good part," Tucker interrupted. It was early Saturday morning, and with everyone gathered in Sam's room, Danny and Harry had finally told them about their look around the dungeons. As expected, Sam and Hermione had not been happy about it. And it was now impossible to get back down in the dungeons, as Filch was standing guard day and night.

"That's it, Tuck," Danny finished, "We couldn't get to the door and we got out of there as fast as we could to keep from getting caught," Tucker looked a bit disappointed.

"Sounds like Filch knew someone had been down there before," Ron said, a bit more dramatically than needed, "And it's a bit strange Snape was down there. His dungeon's two full corridors down."

"You've got an idea?" Tucker turned to him.

"Malfoy's got a few Dark Magic items from his dear old dad and storing them in the dungeon...and Snape's covering up for him!"

"Ronald!" Hermione cried in exasperation, "Have you _ever_ been right about Snape before? _Ever?_"

"Y'know, that makes a lot of sense," Tucker agreed with Ron.

"I told you, someone would have noticed if he was moving anything in there!" Sam said indignantly.

"Snape's covering for him!" Ron repeated.

"Dumbledore trusts –"

"He can be fooled just like anyone! I don't care what he says, there's no way we can trust Snape! He was a Death Eater! He was..."

"He _was_ a Death Eater. He's not anymore..."

"He was a Death Eater?" Sam asked. Her tone was curious more than anything else, but Hermione looked more outraged than ever.

"Don't tell me you're agreeing with them!"

"I didn't say that! You just never said he was a Death Eater!"

"We've never talked about Snape before now, have we?"

"Ron told me about him and Malfoy," Tucker said, "I'm going with his idea!"

"Of course you agree with him! The only thing you know about them is Ron's biased theories he spins out of proportion and..."

"You're not always right!" Ron spat.

"You've never been right about Snape! And I can't believe you actually agree with them!" she turned on Sam.

"I never said I did!"

"Who do you believe, then?" Tucker demanded.

"Well...yeah, he's a Death Eater. That's suspicious, but..."

"My point exactly!" Ron shouted.

"I wasn't finished. Dumbledore seems pretty smart. If Voldemort..."

"_Say You-Know-Who!_" Ron shouted. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"If _Voldemort_," Sam emphasised the last word, causing Ron to throw his hands over his ears, "can't fool him, why would one of his lackeys be able to?"

"He's not his 'lackey' anymore!" Hermione said, "He saved Harry's life first year, last year when we went into the Department of Mysteries he..." she broke off and looked over at Harry, suddenly fearful. Harry said nothing.

"He thought Dumbledore would've kicked him out!" Ron countered, "You-Know-Who wants to kill Harry himself, doesn't he?"

"Voldemort was in the back of Quirrel's head! He turned back to our side before Voldemort fell the first time, he became a spy for the Order..."

"I think he was playing double agent!" Tucker said. The argument dragged on, Hermione and Sam refusing to by Ron's story, which Tucker backed. Danny and Harry sat off to the side, growing more and more bored and annoyed.

"Stubborn, aren't they?" Harry commented.

"If they keep it up they might lose their voices and we won't have to worry about it," Danny yawned.

"What do you think, Danny?" Tucker suddenly turned on him.

"What? No! Guys, I don't want to..."

"What do you think?" Hermione screeched. The look in her eyes convinced him to give his opinion.

"Well...he was a Death Eater..." Ron and Tucker smiled mockingly at Sam and Hermione, "...but why would Dumbledore hire him if he thought he still was one? He doesn't seem like he's the kind of guy to get tricked..."

"He's only human!" Ron roared, "He's mates with Malfoy's dad, he's still a Death Eater! That's where Draco got all of his things!"

"He couldn't have gotten them into the school!" the arguments resumed, Tucker or Sam occasionally forcing Danny to give a reluctant opinion.

"How do you stay out of these things?" he asked Harry pleadingly.

"I'm going to Hagrid's" without answering Danny's question, Harry got up, stretched, and headed outside.

----

As October went on, the chance of getting back to the dungeon did not improve, as Filch continued to prowl it himself or have Mrs. Norris do so day and night. This did nothing to break Ron and Tucker's stubborn claim to their theory that Malfoy was hiding Dark Magic and Snape was covering for him. Thankfully for Danny, they were having less opportunity to argue with Sam and Hermione over it. The teachers had now begun laying down much more homework, taking up more of their time. Katie had been working the Quidditch team harder with five practices a week, giving Harry and Ron even more to do. Harry never got around to letting Danny have the Invisibility Cloak back, and he never got around to asking for it. The only time they managed to see Danny and his friends regularly now was during the magic sessions on Saturdays. Hermione was rarely around at all anymore, as she had more homework than Harry and Ron together. Tucker and Ron tried to use this to their advantage when arguing with Sam about Snape and Malfoy, but she managed to hold her ground as well as if Hermione had been there.

The Halloween feast was coming around the corner, though, and this finally shut Tucker and Ron up. Against Hermione's advice, Harry and Ron had invited Danny and his friends down to the feast. Sam and Tucker could hide under the Invisibility Cloak and Danny, thought to be a school ghost, could just float around.

"I dunno," Sam said when Danny told her about the idea, "The Cloak can come off, we're not really supposed to be around anyone except Harry, Ron and Hermione."

"Well I'm tired of staying up here all the time!" Tucker said, "The food's probably better there than what we get anyway. I say we go! Danny has to show up anyway, and Harry finally gave us back that cloak."

"Too bad ghosts can't eat anything," Danny sighed, "But it's probably going to be good. We can stay by Harry and those guys so you don't get caught near someone else if the Cloak falls off."

"Besides, it'll give us a chance to see what that Malfoy's up to!" Tucker grinned mischievously; Sam sighed.

"Fine, let's go."

----

A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds. The candles were now in pumpkins, the flames flickering against the beating of the bats' wings. The Halloween feast had begun. The four House tables had returned in place of Lupin's stage. Professor Lupin had recovered from the full moon and had rejoined the staff at the High Table. Snape still looked like he was scorching from his duel with Harry. Harry himself was seated with Ron and Hermione, Danny floating nearby. There was a seemingly unexplainable space between Harry and the next person large enough to fit two people. Every so often, Tucker would reach his hand out and sneak some food under the Invisibility Cloak.

"I still don't like this," Hermione eyed a few first years staring at them from down the table, "I think this is the third time they came close to noticing something.

"Ah, quit being such a sourpuss," to everyone's surprise, it was Sam who said this, "This is incredible," she watched as a bat flew over the food, grabbing a grape off one of the plates with its feet.

"Told ya," Tucker took a bite out of an apple.

"Oh, I don't believe this," Hermione scowled. A small food fight had broken out between several first years further down the table, "Ron, let's go."

"You take care of it. I'm not chasing down midgets on Halloween," sighing, Hermione got up and ran down the table. The first years responded by directing the food at her.

"I think she's gonna need some help," Danny said. Ron tossed a chocolate chip into his mouth. Sighing himself, Harry headed down to provide assistance.

"Y'know, you really should do your prefect duties," Tucker said in a half-mocking, half-joking tone. Ron shrugged and lifted his goblet. But before any liquid entered his mouth, he caught something. Malfoy had gotten up and was heading out of the Great Hall. At first it looked like he was staring at Ron, but then Ron noticed he was looking over his shoulder, right at Danny. He didn't take his eyes off him until he rounded the corner and left the Great Hall.

"Where the bloody hell is he going?"

"Probably to his common room," Sam said, not looking up.

"It's not that way," Ron said. He would know; he and Harry had gone in there their second year after taking the Polyjuice Potion, "That way heads outside," he stared after him for a while, "Shall we go see what he's up to?"

"You bet!" Tucker made to get up, but Sam held back the Cloak.

"You can't be serious," she said, annoyed.

"If you don't want to come, you can..."

"If you go I have to come, because this thing doesn't detach for one person to go one way and another person to go another way!"

"Then you'll have to come with us, then," Ron stood up, and Tucker managed to force Sam up with him.

"Danny..." she whispered pleadingly.

"Yeah...c'mon, Danny!" Tucker said.

"Uh..." Danny had to agree with Sam; this didn't sound like a good idea, "Don't you think you should tell a teacher or..."

"No time, we'll lose him!" Ron had already made for the exit. Tucker dragged Sam along, and, sighing, Danny floated out with them. None of them thought to say anything to Harry or Hermione, who were trying to control all the cupcakes being tossed at them.

"He went this way," Ron led them down the corridor and out onto the grounds. The sun was low and the sky a deep red and violet. Soon it would be dark, and the students required to be in bed.

"You're not gonna have time to..." Sam was cut off.

"I'm a prefect."

"So that's why you kept eating when Hermione needed your help?" Ron didn't answer. Off by the edge of the forest, Malfoy stood, looking right at Danny. Then he turned and headed into the mess of dark trees and shadows.

"Let's go!" Tucker started forward, but then noticed Ron. He was no longer confidant. He looked shocked and fearful, staring into the forest with the uttermost dread.

"You OK?" he asked.

"Huh?" he came out of his trance, still looking pale, "Oh, fine, fine. Danny, you're going to stay ghost, right?"

"Aren't I supposed to?"

"Right," Ron gulped, then tried and failed to crack a non-panicked smile.

"Uh..." Tucker looked back out at the forest, "What's in there, anyway?"

"Oh, nothing!" Ron continued to wear his false smile, "Centaurs, unicorns...and snakes, and werewolves, and..." his smile finally slipped away, leaving his face with a horrified grimace.

"You won't need the Cloak in there," he said, and Tucker immediately threw it off, tucking it under his arm.

"Shall we go?" Ron whimpered. With a gulp, he headed off after Malfoy, Tucker right behind him. Danny and Sam shared worried looks; something did not seem right here. With a last feeling of uncertainty, the headed into the forest with Ron and Tucker.

From the start, it was eerily apparent why this was known as the Forbidden Forest. The little sunlight left barely filtered through the towering trees, which cast ominous dark shadows all around. Leaves and twigs crinkled and broke apart under their feet as they moved on. Ron and Danny lit their wands, but the ghostly green glow from Danny's only seemed to make the forest feel darker. Soon the setting sun and the ever taller trees blotted out all other light but the light of their wands.

"Stay on the path," Ron said, still pale. Danny could see why he didn't want to come in here. There was no sign of Malfoy other than a few footprints, and they had passed those a while ago.

"So..." Tucker said; now his voice was starting to sound worried, "There's werewolves in here?" Danny saw Ron barely move his head into a nod. The continued on, the night becoming more and more dark and the path becoming harder and harder to make out, even with wandlight. Finally, the forest became so thick over the path that it was damn near impossible to continue. Tucker's foot became caught in a branch, and he went sliding into the mess of trees around them.

"Tuck!" Danny pointed is wand over by the trees.

"I'm fine," Tucker called, "But I'm stuck," Danny, Sam and Ron made their way through the trees and over to him. His hat was off, his foot was caught in a bush, and he was covered in spiders. Danny and Sam sighed.

"Be careful," Sam said, and they helped him get his leg out from the bush. Then they noticed Ron. He was standing back from the spiders, trembling with fear.

"What's wrong with you?" Danny asked.

"I hate spiders," he squeaked, "And if we're," he looked up towards the trees, his wand almost falling from his hand, "where I think we are..." Danny looked up. He saw nothing. But he heard a loud clicking noise, and suddenly he felt something long and hairy seize him around the middle and lift him up off the ground and into the treetops. Struggling to get loose, he heard Sam scream out his name before looking down. A black, hairy spider the size of a carthorse grabbed her in its legs and headed up the tree after the one carrying him. He vaguely caught sight of two more scrambling around below before the spider dragged him over a branch and onto another tree, taking Tucker, Ron, and the other spiders out of sight. Danny kept at his struggle to get loose, but the spider holding him had a tight grip. Then he realised his wand was still in his hand and he was still in ghost-mode. Two ghost-rings shot out from around his middle, sending the spider flying through the decaying foliage and onto the forest floor below. He whirled around and flew right at the spider carrying Sam. He went intangible, grabbed her, and they flew out of the creature's grasp and towards a third one, which held Tucker. Danny grabbed him with his free hand and landed on a large branch, setting his friends down.

"Ron!" Tucker gasped. A fourth spider was dragging a pure-white and sweat-drenched Ron up the tree. Danny phased him out of its grip and set him down. He was trembling so badly that Sam and Tucker had to hold him to keep him from falling out of the tree. The spiders were coming back towards them, and they weren't alone. What seemed like hundreds of spiders, all of different sizes, were on the assault, coming across branches and up tree trunks. Danny raised a barrier around his friends and himself, but he couldn't hold it forever. The spiders flowed over the top of it like a wave of violent water, threatening to break it apart and swarm around inside. The ones that had already gone overhead were now whirling around on the return strike. From inside the shield Danny's eyes darted left and right, looking for some advantage. With his shield slightly illuminating the surrounding area, he caught sight of a vine trailing straight down to the floor of the forest, where all the spiders had cleared from.

"Guys," he muttered, and jerked his head over to the vine. Picking up the signal immediately, Sam and Tucker nodded. Ron gulped and gripped his wand tighter.

"You'll need help," he whispered, and Danny knew he couldn't argue there.

"On three," he said, "One...two...THREE!" the barrier faded way. Sam and Tucker threw themselves onto the vine and slipped down out of sight as Danny fired pure white blasts from each hand, knocking spiders everywhere and tearing several apart. Ron, though his hand was shaking violently, was able to fire out several rounds of the Impediment Curse and a few Stunners. Danny continued his steady stream of energy blasts, but the spiders kept coming. Worse, some of them had spotted Sam and Tucker running away.

"NO!" a long, green line of energy flew from Danny's fist like a whip, severing the spiders in two. He grabbed Ron and flew down to the forest floor by Sam and Tucker, and the four took off as fast as they could, the spiders closing in.

"Since when can you do that whip thing?" Tucker asked.

"Since just now!" Danny fired an Impediment Curse over his shoulder, not looking back to see if he hit anything. The spiders were faster than he'd thought.

"Keep going!" he shouted, "I'll hold 'em back!" he whirled around, raising a gigantic ectoplasmic wall that kept the spiders from going around, over, or under in their pursuit. Several minutes passed before Sam, Tucker and Ron stopped, their lungs almost bursting and all of them covered in broken twigs and leaves.

"We need to go back," Sam gasped.

"I'm not going back!" Ron stared at her as though she lost her mind.

"Danny..."

"Sam, he can take care of himself," Tucker said through his breaths, "Did you see that whip thing? A bunch of spiders won't kill him," Sam stared at them for a minute, then headed back. As she approached the battle scene, she saw what Tucker meant. Dead spiders lay everywhere, several severed in half or chopped into more pieces. The juice or whatever it was inside those things was everywhere; on the ground, on the trees, leaking onto the bodies of other spiders. One of which was moving. Sam started to scream, but saw that it was being lifted up. Danny threw it off himself. There was something wrong with him. A long, thick piece of a branch had been driven into his left side. Green ectoplasmic blood was seeping out over it and onto the silver-gloved hand that was gripping at the branch, trying to keep the blood back more than trying to pull it out.

"Danny!" Sam ran over, "Are you OK?"

"Fine," he muttered through clenched teeth, "Let's get out of here before..." he couldn't finish, and he fell to his knees. It felt like there were a thousand splinters all over his body, not just the one branch. And he felt cold. He could see his own breath. In fact, everything now seemed to be freezing; frost had formed on the ground, the juice from the spiders was frozen, and the air became thick with fog. Danny then remembered the night outside The Leaky Cauldron. No...it couldn't be...

"Sam," he looked up towards the trees, not at her, "Run," she didn't move, "RUN!" the force behind his voice was so great she couldn't press the matter. One she was away Danny picked his wand up off the ground and stood up the best he could.

'_Think positive,'_ he thought to himself, _'Think happy thoughts,'_ he didn't even mind how stupid it felt to be quoting Peter Pan. The ominous black figure was floating just a few feet above him, slowly descending.

"_Expecto Patronum!_" Danny shouted, "_Expecto Patronum!_" a feeble wisp of green smoke darted out from the tip of his wand and faded into the night. His breathing was intensifying, and he felt his body go into a cold shiver. The shaking pushed him back against the tree as the dementor floated down to the ground, moving ever closer. It lined its face right up with Danny's, and leaned in as if it was trying to kiss him. Danny tried to keep his mouth closed, but the need to breathe and all of his shivering forced his mouth open. Scenes were starting to flash before him; Spectra's time at his school, Vlad, Skulker...as a wave of horrible memories swept over him and the dementor wrapped its skeletal hands around his throat, the forest seemed to explode with silver light. The dementor pulled back violently, flying out in an instant. As the light cleared, a silver, glowing form in the shape of a stag ran over, looking right at Danny. For a moment it seemed like it was going to lick him, but it soon vanished as if it was smoke. Harry, Sam, and Hermione ran over, catching Danny before he completely toppled over.

----

"What in the world were you _thinking?_" even through all her concern and relief, Hermione still found it in her to express her extreme anger at their stupidity, "Into the forest at night, off the path...you could have died! You could have..."

"Stop acting like my mother for a minute and help!" Ron spat. Danny was still cold as ice, and he could barely hold onto his ghost-form, much less walk back to the school. Harry and the others helped him along; no one had tried removing the branch yet.

"Malfoy was the one slipping out from under Dumbledore's nose into the forest, we were just –"

"You should have told someone!" she cut Ron off, "Even prefects aren't allowed in the forest!"

"What were you and Harry doing here then?"

"We were trying to save you! You disappeared at the feast and when we saw Malfoy wasn't with the Slytherins we knew you'd done something, and the footprints on the ground –"

"Shut up and move," Harry sighed, and Sam and Tucker had to agree. Even they didn't argue this much.

"I still think you should have –" Hermione broke off, but not from an interruption. They had just come out of the forest, and Hagrid was standing on the path, looking more angry, shocked, and worried than they had ever seen him before.

----

"Ready?" Hagrid asked. Danny was sitting down, and Hagrid had his hands on the branch still imbedded in him. Danny nodded.

"Let's go."

"Alrigh'" Hagrid shrugged, "One – two – three –" he ripped the branch from Danny's side, and suddenly Danny went stiff as a board. Two ghost rings flew across his body, and he went back into human form. The green ectoplasm turned to a blood-red stain on his T-shirt.

"Yeh'll need that patched up," Hagrid nodded to the wound. Danny barely nodded and pulled his shirt off.

Sam and Tucker had been with Danny on almost all of his ghost-hunting exploits, and they'd seen some of the damage he took, but seeing him like this really drove home to them just how much he'd endeared since becoming Danny Phantom. There was still a fresh scar on his right wrist from Valerie's weapons, and another mark further up on his arm from Bertrand. Near his right ribs there was a bite mark, also from Bertrand. He was covered in still-healing bruises and scratches. The bloody hole in his side didn't seem quite such a major addition now. Harry, Ron and Hermione were equally as shocked by all of his injuries.

"Bloody hell," Ron exclaimed as Hagrid helped Danny secure the bandages around his middle.

"Now what the ruddy hell were yeh doin' in the forest to begin with?" Hagrid suddenly turned stern.

"It was my fault," Ron said, and Hermione stared at him in shock and something almost like admiration, "Malfoy was sneaking off into the forest, I dragged them along."

"No, I came with him on my own," Tucker shook his head, "I'm the one who made Danny and Sam come."

"Yeh should've gone teh a teacher! Yeh know yer not supposed ter be sneakin' around the forest without a teacher, not under any circumstances!" Ron and Tucker both looked down at their shoes, not saying anything. Hagrid now turned on Harry and Hermione.

"And you two!" he shouted, "Goin' after 'em without tellin' no one! Hermione, why didn' yeh –"

"Hagrid, we didn't think there'd be time!" Hermione protested, but she looked extremely guilty. Danny felt pretty bad himself. They'd almost gotten killed, broken who knows how many rules, and they still didn't know what Malfoy was up to – if he even was up to anything. For a long time, no one spoke.

"Well – I covered for yeh," Hagrid finally said, "I said yeh'd all come down ter see me and we lost track of time. But I'm goin' ter have teh tell Dumbledore. Got to. Harry, Hermione – yeh still should've gotten someone, but yeh did good. I'll leave yeh out," they all nodded. Danny put his shirt on, and they headed outside.

"Oh...Hagrid," Harry held back, "You should also tell Dumbledore – a dementor appeared," Hagrid jumped.

"A dementor?" Harry nodded.

"It tried to get Danny. Dumbledore should know," Hagrid stared off into space, shocked, "G'night," Harry closed the door and headed up to the castle.


	14. Punishment

Here it is ;) Not much in length or excitement, but after three chapters of heavy suspense and one with action, I thought a cool-down was in order.

* * *

Danny sat on his bed, growing increasingly annoyed the more Tucker paced back and forth across the room. Hagrid had made good on his promise to let Dumbledore know what had happened. Harry and Hermione had been left out for saving them, but Ron, Danny, Sam, and Tucker were all now supposed to see Dumbledore. Danny, Sam and Tucker were in Danny's room, waiting. Ron had gone on his own and they hadn't seen him all day. Tucker continued his pacing.

"Will you stop that!?" Danny finally shouted.

"Hey, I'm nervous!" Tucker said, "What if we have to clean this place? What if we have to live in that forest? What if we have to leave! Hey, my electronics would work then…"

"Maybe you should have thought of that _before_ dragging us in there!" Sam hissed. She was sitting next to Danny, and had also been getting tired of Tucker's constant pacing.

"Well no one asked you to come along!" Tucker shouted, getting angry.

"Like I had a choice!?"

"What about Danny!? You didn't have to come!" Tucker rounded on Danny as if he had been on Sam's side all along.

"I didn't say anything!" Danny shouted back, "And what was I supposed to do, let you guys drag Sam into the forest and get yourselves killed!?"

"You didn't know what was in there!"

"Why do you think it's called the _Forbidden_ Forest!?" Danny and Tucker hadn't been this angry at one another in quite a while. They looked like they were on the verge of breaking into a fight when a knock came at the door. It was Harry.

"He's ready."

----

The trio followed Harry through the castle. They stopped at a large, ugly gargoyle.

"Chocolate mousse" Harry said. The gargoyle seemed to pull upwards, dragging behind it a spiral staircase. Harry nodded to it. Apparently, he wouldn't be coming along with them. With a gulp, Danny, Sam and Tucker began up the staircase alone.

They reached a door with a brass knocker in the shape of a griffin. Danny opened the door. They found themselves in a very interesting room. It was a large, circular, beautiful room, full of strange little noises and curious silver instruments on spindle-legged tables. Old portraits of headmasters and headmistresses gone by adorned the walls, all of them sleeping away in their frames. A claw-footed desk was at the back of the room, a brilliant, sleeping red bird perched on a stand on it. Sitting in the desk, looking very serious indeed, was Dumbledore.

"Sit down," he motioned towards three chairs opposite him by the desk. With yet another gulp, the trio did so. Dumbledore fixed a piercing stare on them, as if he were looking right through them and into their minds.

"I must say, I am very disappointed," he shook his head, "very disappointed indeed. Why would you go into the Forbidden Forest alone?"

"Malfoy…" Tucker began, but Dumbledore held up a hand to silence him.

"That has already been explained by Ron. I will be seeing Malfoy shortly. But why would you go with Ron after him?" Tucker slumped back into his chair. None of them had a way to justify their behaviour.

"And going down to the feast when no one is to see you…" Dumbledore shook his head again, "I'm afraid this changes everything. You will no longer be allowed to go around the castle when the students are up and about. If you want to look around, you must do it at night, and only under the Invisibility Cloak. This goes for you as well, Danny," Dumbledore looked directly at him before continuing, "Furthermore, you are not allowed outside the school grounds and will follow the same guidelines as students in where you can and cannot go anywhere in the castle. Harry, Hermione, and Ron are now forbidden from seeing you any time other than weekends. And I'm afraid that, should anything like this happen again, I will have to make things even more strict. Do you understand?" all three of them nodded. Danny felt horrible. All the fun and wonder of being in this place…and they'd blown it by doing something this stupid.

"Off you go," Dumbledore nodded to the door. The trio gathered themselves up and moved towards it. Danny stopped and turned around.

"Uh, Dumbledore, sir?" he asked gently, "The Quidditch matches…I can fly over the crowds and go invisible…and wouldn't house ghosts go out to cheer…"

"You can go," Dumbledore said, "But just you," behind Danny, Tucker's face gained an expression of jealousy and disappointment.

"Thanks," Danny nodded, and the trio headed downstairs. Harry, Ron and Hermione were waiting for them, and they headed back up to Danny's room.

Danny couldn't help but notice that Ron's prefect badge was now missing on his robes.

* * *

I may do Chapter 15 all on my own before really struggling for a partner. I'm working with Trevor the Enchanted right now on ideas, so I think this fic can still go on. 


	15. NOTICE

OK folks, I've got a new update for ya' ;)

I've been talking with two people about being my partner on this thing; Trevor the Enchantor and Khrystiana. They've given me some of their work, and, while our styles aren't completely matched up, I think they're close enough to me that this can work.

Chapter 15 I'm going to write myself. After that, Trevor, Khrystiana and myself will come up with the remainder of the fic. I've got a rough outline of what I want to happen, but I think Trevor and Khrystiana will be coming up with the finer points. After we get that worked out, I'm going to give them chapters to write. After they do that, I'll go over it, do a wee bit of editing, and post it up here.

So, this fic _will_ go on. I'll be focusing more on my smaller fics, but with Trevor and Khrystiana helping me, this one should get finished ;)

wafische89


	16. AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hello, all.

It's been some time since I've done anything with my account, and even longer since I've worked on this particular story. My personal life has been both busy and incredibly rewarding over the past two years, and as I prepare original work for publication, fanfiction has seldom, if ever, been on my mind.

Recently, however, a wave of nostalgia moved me to look over material I had produced during my time on _Danny Phantom_ forums and websites. I haven't looked at this work in some time, and doing so brought back some happy memories from when I was involved in Internet fandoms and worked on the DPOF. But with these memories came the realisation of how much things have changed for me. I haven't watched an episode of _Danny Phantom_ in a very long time, and were I to try writing for it again, I doubt I'd be able to do it justice. That, and the severe length of time that's passed since I last picked up this particular story has left me without much of an idea as to where I was going with it. Finally, while I apologise to the people over the years who have left reviews about this story asking if it will be completed, my enthusiasm for it collapsed long ago and I honestly now feel it was a damned endeavour to begin with.

I enjoyed being an Internet fan of DP and fanfiction taught me a lot about writing, but I'm just not at that place anymore. My account and stories will stay on this site, including this unfinished one, but for anybody still expecting an update, I'm afraid it won't happen.

- wafische89


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